It always seems that when the Dodgers are doing poorly Dodger fans can’t wait for next season’s schedule to come out and when they are doing well (or even great, as they are this season), it seems much less a priority. That being said, when you’ve got a winning team, or even a championship-caliber team, you want the winning to continue on and on and on – which, of course, includes next season and the season after that and so on.
On Tuesday morning the Dodgers (and all of MLB for that matter) released their preliminary 2014 schedules.
As Dodger fans already know by now, the team will open it’s 2014 season against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Sydney, Australia on March 22 and 23, both of which will be considered D-backs home games. Because of this earlier-than-the-rest-of-baseball start, the Dodgers and D-backs will begin their spring training earlier than the rest of the MLB, although the exact dates have yet to be announced. The two teams will face each other several times during their early spring training before their 15-hour flight to Sydney.
After the two teams return home from their Australia season opener, they will most likely resume spring training (or some facsimile thereof) even though their 25-man rosters and rotations will have already been set.
The Dodgers will then travel to San Diego to begin their real 2014 season for a three-game series against the Padres March 31 – April 2, when the rest of MLB begins their 2014 season.
The Dodgers home opener is scheduled for Friday, April 4, 2014 against the hated Giants.
Interleague play for the Dodgers in 2014 will be against the AL Central Division and four Freeway Series games with the Angels – two home and two away. As it was in 2013, interleague play will be a season-long affair for MLB teams with the Dodgers first two interleague games scheduled against the Detroit Tigers at Dodger Stadium on April 8 & 9, 2014. Each MLB team will have 20 interleague games in 2014.
Although subject to change, here is the Dodgers’ preliminary 2014 schedule:
The final 2014 schedule (with game times) will be posted when it becomes available.