When Do The Dodgers Play A Fans Guide To The Schedule Key Matchups And Missed Games

Understanding the Dodgers Schedule: What You Actually Need to Know

The Dodgers play a 162-game season, which means roughly one game every three days with some doubleheaders mixed in. Getting oriented around their schedule used to require printing out paper sheets and highlighting them with colored pens. Now it is mostly about knowing where to look and what to ignore. If you are trying to figure out when the Dodgers play, key matchups, and which games you might be missing, the official MLB schedule page is your starting point. It lists every game, the opponent, the ballpark, and whether a game has been moved. The problem is that page is enormous and not designed for casual fans who just want a quick read. I found this out the hard way back in 2019 when I tried to map out a road trip around Dodgers games in Chicago and St. Louis. The MLB website showed the games but did not clearly indicate which ones had standing room only tickets available or which nights were likely to sell out early. I ended up booking a hotel two hours from the stadium because I did not check the parking situation properly. The workaround was simple: I started using the Dodger Stadium official site directly instead of the MLB central page. It had neighborhood parking info and a clearer breakdown of ticket availability by section.

Key matchups are the games that actually matter for fan interest. These are usually series against the Giants, Padres, or Braves. The Dodgers rarely have marquee matchups against weak teams, so if you are trying to pick which games to attend, focus on division rivals and teams with winning records. The rest of the schedule is filler.

How to Track Missed Games

Missed games happen for a few reasons. Rainouts push schedules back. Travel days eat into rest. Sometimes the team plays doubleheaders and you cannot watch both. The best way to track what you miss is setting up alerts through the MLB app or the Dodgers app. Both send notifications for schedule changes. One thing most fans overlook is that made-up games after rainouts are not always televised. If a doubleheader gets shortened to one game due to weather and then rescheduled later in the season, that make-up game might only be available on local sports networks or not at all on national channels. I learned this when a July rainout in 2022 caused a makeup game against Colorado that was only broadcast on Bally Sports West. If you do not have that channel, you missed it unless you found a stream.

What to Watch For in the Schedule

The Dodgers schedule has predictable patterns. They tend to have long homestand blocks followed by long road trips. This is mostly because of stadium booking conflicts at Dodger Stadium and the logistics of West Coast travel. Knowing this helps you plan ahead. Ticket prices also follow patterns. Weekday games against non-division opponents are usually the cheapest. Saturday afternoon games against the Giants can run three times the price of a Tuesday night against a last-place team. If you are on a budget, target midweek games in April or late September. The MLB.com schedule is the most complete source. It includes time changes, TV coverage, and radio affiliates. The Dodgers official website at mlb.com/dodgers has a cleaner fan-facing version with ticket links built in.

For real-time updates on moved or cancelled games, the DodgersTwitter account and the official MLB app are the fastest sources. I check both during spring training because that is when schedule changes are most common. Teams often shuffle games for TV slots or weather reasons before the season locks in.

A Note on What This Guide Cannot Do

No schedule guide is perfect. Last-minute changes happen. Injuries to star players can shift which games get national coverage. Playoff implications change which rivalry games matter most in any given year. The schedule is a living document, not a fixed plan. If you want a single reliable method, print or save a copy of the full schedule as soon as it drops in late summer or early fall. Highlight the division series. Mark the weekends you want to attend. Then check the MLB app weekly for updates. That is how I have managed it for over a decade without losing my mind.