by Rowan Kavner
Manager Dave Roberts said his last gaming console might have been a Nintendo. He may need an upgrade as the Dodgers prepare for their first — and longest — road trip of the season.
The Dodgers departed Monday for a nine-game trip that will take them to Houston, Arizona and San Diego. It will be a trip unlike any other, considering the responsibility needed to keep everyone healthy on the road this year.
“We have talked about the fact that you’ve got to win on the field, but also winning off the field is going to be important too for each team,” Roberts said. “Staying safe and trying to win the battle of attrition in 2020 is going to be important.”
As of Saturday, Dodger players said they’ve had some discussions about how to handle life on the road, though there was no written, formal code of conduct or protocols. Roberts said he’s had one-off conversations with players and planned to have another conversation with his players before they departed, but he trusts them to know what’s at stake.
“There’s been a lot of internal conversations among the players and coaches already happening, which is good and helpful, but also a lot of it is common sense,” he said. “The more you expose yourself to people, the more likely you’ll get it.”
Will Smith said players realize that. The Dodger catcher expects video games to take up most of the players’ free time on the road. He said they’ll avoid restaurants, instead ordering in food, and he felt safe traveling under the testing protocols.
“We’ll be extra careful to stay at the hotel or go to the field,” Smith said. “I think it’ll be OK.”
Walker Buehler, who’s set to make his debut Tuesday in Houston, said players are all adjusted at this point to the oddities of the season and at least understand how to handle the circumstances at home.
The road trip, he said, is the one part that can’t be practiced.
“But I know everyone’s extremely conscious of what they’re doing and where they’re going and trying to minimize the risk not only for ourselves but for everyone around us,” Buehler said. “Until there’s a reason to kind of be concerned, I’m not too worried about it.”
Those comments all came before Monday, when a COVID-19 outbreak on the Marlins caused two games to be postponed. (Miami had just wrapped up its series in Philadelphia, so the Phillies’ game Monday against the Yankees was also postponed.)
Clayton Kershaw said the fear of starting an outbreak on the team or potentially shutting a season down should keep Dodger players as smart as they can be.
Kershaw, who’s on the injured list, is expected to join the team on the road trip and potentially return over the weekend. Like Smith, Kershaw said players understand they can’t roll into town and find something to eat like they would normally.
“Between what Major League Baseball has said and just kind of the social responsibility that we have, honestly it’s just kind of scary,” Kershaw said. “You think about, man, if I go somewhere and get it and give it to my teammates and our season’s ruined because of something I did, that’s a bad feeling. You don’t want to be that guy. I think just that pressure alone will keep guys (doing) the responsible thing. That’s not to say some guys won’t still get it obviously, but I think we’re going to do everything we can to stay as safe as possible.”
Corey Seager echoed those thoughts: “You do something stupid, you put the rest of the team at risk. It’s going to be the last man kind of standing this year, so you need to be smart on and off the field.”
Once at the field, Dodger players are already aware of the various differences this year from their games at home. Players can’t lounge and hang out in the clubhouse. Will Smith said meetings have to be cut off at 15 minutes, so there are occasions where brief breaks need to take place before picking back up, but for the most part his pitcher-catcher meetings only last around 10 minutes before games.
On the pitching side, Alex Wood said more preparation will need to be done before start day, in case any issues arise.
“It’s kind of one of those things where you’re learning on the fly right now,” Wood said.
As players stick to their rooms playing video games, Roberts said he’ll probably be binging shows when he’s not going over game plans with coaches at a safe distance at the hotel. However the Dodgers want to keep themselves occupied, the prevailing thought is not to leave the hotel outside of games and travel between cities for the next 10 days.
“For what I’ve heard, I’d probably be a Call of Duty guy,” Roberts said.
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