May 1 pregame: Readying for Red

**Dodgers at Twins, 10:10 a.m.** Dee Gordon, 2B Yasiel Puig, RF Hanley Ramirez, SS Adrian Gonzalez, 1B Matt Kemp, DH Andre Ethier, CF Juan Uribe, 3B Miguel Olivo, C Carl Crawford, LF (Dan Haren, P)

By Jon Weisman

Though Dan Haren takes the mound at the top of the hour for Game 1 of today’s impromptu doubleheader, it’s hard not to look ahead to the nightcap, when Red Patterson will make his Major League debut.

It’s likely a cameo for Patterson, who comes via the 26th man rule. A 6-foot-3 righthander who turns 27 in May, Patterson followed up two strong back-to-back starts in mid-April by getting hit pretty hard in his most recent outing for Albuquerque, allowing five runs on 11 baserunners in 5 1/3 innings. For the year to date, he has 14 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings, though last year, he averaged more than a fan a frame.

Don Mattingly told reporters today that Patterson impressed the organization during Spring Training and that he’s a strike thrower, which is valuable against a patient team like the Twins.

Eric Stephen noted at True Blue L.A. that Patterson “will be the oldest non-Japanese Dodgers starting pitcher to make his major league debut since Larry Miller, who was 27 years, two days old on June 21, 1964, also in the second game of a doubleheader.”

To make room on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers designated outfielder Nick Buss for assignment. Buss, 27, had a .330 on-base percentage and .391 slugging for the Isotopes, after going .363/.525 last year. He went 2 for 19 for the Dodgers in 2013.