LOS ANGELES – Since Joe Maddon moved him out of the leadoff spot earlier this week, Kyle Schwarber hasn’t started a game against a lefty. That trend continued on Friday in Los Angeles as Maddon sat Schwarber against southpaw Alex Wood and wouldn’t commit to playing him on Sunday with lefty Clayton Kershaw scheduled to pitch.
“Playing him [Saturday] and we’ll see how that plays out,” Maddon said. “Today I was not going to play him anyway. Would I have played him if he had been hot overall? I might have. But my concern with a guy struggling a little bit is you don’t want him to get too many at-bats, then it’s really hard to get out of that actual numerical hole.