Dodgers News: Mattingly Isn’t Interested In Excuses On Road Trip

At the conclusion of  a 10-game homestand, the Los Angeles were tasked with heading out on the road for a nine-game trip. Beginning on April 29, the road trip would take the Dodgers to Minnesota, Florida and lastly Washington, D.C., before they would return to Dodger Stadium for a game with the San Francisco Giants on May 8.

With the first game scheduled in Minnesota, the trip got off to an ominous start as it was rained out and scheduled as part of a doubleheader on May 1. Initially, the Dodgers were scheduled to play an early afternoon game on May 1 as it was a getaway day.

Not only would they end up playing the doubleheader, the second game went into extra innings and the Dodgers didn’t arrive to their hotel in Miami, Fla., until around 6 a.m. on the morning of May 2, with a game scheduled 13 hours later.

Monday’s shutout loss to the Nationals presented a different set of challenges for the Dodgers, as there was a three-hour and 17-minute rain delay. Despite the less than desired circumstances that have clouded the trip, manager Don Mattingly isn’t interested in using them as an excuse, via Mark Saxon of ESPN LA:

When you go into spring training, you know things like this are going to happen and I just don’t think you can allow it to be an excuse,” Mattingly said. “You’ve got to play. At the end of the day, you either won or lost and nobody’s going to come back later and go, ‘Well, they played four of those games after they traveled.’ To me, it’s not worth talking about, because it’s an excuse built in.”

With the loss, the Dodgers are now 18-15 on the season and are 1-3 in their last four games after sweeping the Twins for three. Despite arriving later than expected in Miami, the Dodgers were within one run headed to the bottom of the seventh.

The Dodgers have yet to reflect the team many projected them to be going into the 2014 season. Some of their failure to meet expectations can be attributed to injuries, with players seemingly going down as another is set to return. The Dodgers have two more games remaining before returning to Los Angeles and better weather is expected — however, don’t look for Mattingly to be interested in the particulars surrounding the final games of the road trip.
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