Dodgers starting pitcher on 4 days rest, for first time in 2026

Emmet Sheehan gets the start on Tuesday for the Dodgers in the middle game of their series against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park, but what’s notable is that it’s the first start this season for Los Angeles on four days rest.

Sheehan allowed two runs in six innings with six strikeouts in his win last Thursday over San Francisco. He swapped rotation slots so Shohei Ohtani could start on Wednesday’s series finale, directly in front of an off day, reducing the number of games Ohtani might hit with next-day fatigue after a pitching start.

Pitching on four days rest was the norm for decades in baseball, but that’s waned a bit over time. Here’s a look at the Dodgers starts on four (or three) days rest over the last few five-year check-ins.

Dodgers starts on (3 or) 4 days rest

That’s a slow-ish decline, and even in some recent years when the Dodgers have looked for avenues to give extra rest whenever possible, through spot starts, bullpen games, the decline in starts on four days rest wasn’t precipitous, until 2024.

Last season, after excluding openers, relievers making spot starts, and some final-week shenanigans, the Dodgers had 150 real starts, and only nine of them were on four days rest. The rest were split essentially evenly, with 70 starts on five days rest and 71 starts with six days or longer. Through Monday, this year has 15 starts on four days rest and 32 starts on longer rest (Friday’s bullpen game in Anaheim is not included).

How the Dodgers have truly shifted came with the signing of Yoshinobu Yamamoto in December 2023. Used to pitching roughly once a week in Japan, Yamamoto has pitched with at least five days rest in every one of his major league appearances, save for one lore-creating, championship-clinching performance in the World Series last November.

Roki Sasaki signed last year and is also on the same extra-rest plan, as is Ohtani, who returned to pitching last June. Ohtani as a two-way player means he doesn’t count against the roster limit of 13 pitchers, which makes it much easier to use a six-man starting rotation, because the team can still keep a full complement of eight relievers. Hence the decline in starts on four days rest. Tuesday is just the 30th such start for the Dodgers since the start of 2024, which is a quarter fewer than the 2023 season alone.

In 2024, the Dodgers’ first start on four days rest was in the 15th game of the season, when Bobby Miller allowed two runs in four innings on the road in Minnesota on April 10. Last year the first start on four days rest was May 11 by Tony Gonsolin, who threw five scoreless innings in the 41st game of the season. Tuesday is the Dodgers’ 49th game of 2026.

Tuesday is technically Sheehan’s third career start on four days rest, though his one-inning “start” last September 26 — the final weekend of the regular season, keeping him available for relief work as early as four days later in the wild card round — doesn’t really count. Sheehan also struck out nine in 4 2/3 innings with one run allowed on four days rest on September 21, 2023, but that was following a three-inning relief outing, not another start.