Even an ironman like Dodgers’ Adrian Gonzalez gets a day off

Everybody deserves a day off now and then. Not bloggers, of course, but regular people. Maybe major league players aren’t exactly Regular Joes, but they do play a grueling 162-game schedule and report to work almost every day for 7-1/2 consecutive months.

So they deserve a blow now and then, even if you play like you’re oblivious to it all, such as Adrian Gonzalez.

Gonzalez has appeared in 105 of the Dodgers’ 108 games, including 72 consecutive starts. He’s been a rock. Pretty sure that qualifies for a day off.

The Dodgers will try, without Gonzalez, to break their record for consecutive road victories Saturday against the Cubs, but that’s fine. Manager Don Mattingly is wisely trying to rest his players –- Hanley Ramirez and Carl Crawford sat Friday –- particularly through the dog days of summer.

Mattingly is also planing to temporarily go to six starting pitchers and call up Stephen Fife to pitch Sunday, which is also smart this time of year.

Gonzalez only leads the Dodgers in games, home runs (15), RBIs (66) and runs (40), and is understandably Mattingly’s team MVP to this point.

So he gets a day off, or at least from starting, with Scott Van Slyke at first against the Cubs. Now if only Mattingly could work on the schedule for bloggers....