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Saturday’s Chicago weather forecast
By Jon Weisman
If Roberto Hernandez goes out and throws a nifty five or six innings Saturday in Chicago, the Dodgers appear ready to turn Sunday’s game over to their bullpen and save Dan Haren for Monday against the Giants.
If Hernandez has an early exit, the relief corps — which has thrown a whopping 25 2/3 innings in the past five days — might once again be thrust into early action Saturday.
And if Mother Nature follows through on her threat of rain, who knows what the result will be?
No matter how you slice it, it looks like a big weekend for the guys in the pen. However, like farewell ceremonies for Derek Jeter, there are lots and lots of them.
This chart shows how many pitches each reliever has thrown in the past five games:
Noteworthy:
- The Dodgers’ top two go-to relievers this season, Kenley Jansen and J.P. Howell, have worked the least over the past five games.
- No one has pitched two days in a row since Wednesday, meaning that everyone is available to pitch in on Saturday, except whoever might be Sunday’s starting pitcher if it’s not Haren.
- Not that it’s likely to break this cleanly, but if Hernandez pitched five innings Saturday, there are exactly 13 pitchers to cover the 13 regulation innings remaining in Chicago.
pigstown
Rather see Haren pitch in the Ravine than at Wrigley.