Prior to Monday night’s game against the Washington Nationals, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was asked if his rotation is basically set for the remainder of the regular season with everyone going every fifth day.

“We can still tweak [the rotation] a little bit,” said Mattingly. “We’ve talked about some different days so there still may be some changes, but for the most part I think Kersh is lined up. He’s not moving unless something happens. You never know what can happen but right now I think he’s lined up. I don’t know if anybody else is really locked in anywhere.”

Exactly what “lined up” means is subject to interpretation and Mattingly never reveals his rotation schedule more than a few days in advance, but it’s safe to say that Kershaw being lined up means that two of his remaining four (or possibly five) starts will be against the Giants – one at AT&T Park on September 12, 13 or 14 and the other at Dodger Stadium on September 22, 23 or 24.

In all likelihood Kershaw has four starts remaining – two of which will be against the Hated Ones.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

After today’s scheduled day off the Dodgers have 22 games remaining – 12 at home and 10 on the road. They also have two remaining days off. The question is, will Mattingly have Kershaw pitch every fifth day regardless of the off days or will he move Kershaw back a day because of them?

Although this is entirely speculation, if Kershaw goes every five days (counting the off days) he could have five starts remaining. But this is already out of whack because the starters for this weekend’s series against the Diamondbacks have already been announced – with Dan Haren going on Friday, Zack Greinke on Saturday and Hyun-jin Ryu on Sunday. But from this point on, if Kershaw were to go every five days, his projected schedule could be:

• Monday, September 8 vs. Padres
• Saturday, September 13 at Giants
• Thursday, September 18 at Cubs
• Tuesday, September 23 vs. Giants
• Sunday, September 28 vs. Rockies (although this is highly unlikely because it is the last game of the regular season and would affect the playoff rotation).

If Mattingly chooses to move Kershaw back a day because of the two off days to give his ace an extra day’s rest, Kershaw’s projected schedule could be:

• Monday, September 8 vs. Padres
• Sunday, September 14 at Giants
• Friday, September 19 at Cubs
• Wednesday, September 24 vs. Giants

This second scenario seems far more likely and Mattingly, of course, has the option of using Carlos Frias as a sixth man in the rotation to give his entire starting rotation an extra day of rest, but doing so would potentially move Kershaw off of one or both of the Giants series and the chances of this happening are slim and none, and slim left town.

There is one other scenario, one that is unthinkable. Should the Dodgers (Heaven forbid) fall out of the division lead and find themselves in danger of falling out of the Wild Card race, there is little doubt that Kershaw would go on three or perhaps even two days rest if it means making the postseason or not – but let’s not even go there.