Kenta Maeda is on a hot streak but still could lose his spot in the Dodgers’ rotation

Only in Los Angeles can a pitcher come within two outs of a complete game, capping a superb three-start run in which he went 2-0 with a 2.21 ERA, and be asked afterward if he was concerned about losing his spot in the rotation.

That is the current state of the Dodgers, who are swimming in so much starting pitching depth — “a great problem to have,” says everyone in the game — they’re not sure what to do with it.

Kenta Maeda allowed two runs and five hits in 8 1/3 innings of a 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday night and has clearly recovered from his first four starts of the season, when he went 1-2 with an 8.05 ERA and allowed seven home runs.

In three starts since, Maeda has allowed five earned runs in 20 1/3 innings, struck out 21, walked four and held hitters to a .181 average with no homers.

But Maeda wasn’t the only Dodgers starter in action on Wednesday. Brandon McCarthy, on the disabled list because of left-shoulder soreness, threw a four-inning, 60-pitch simulated game, and Manager Dave Roberts said the right-hander will be slotted back into the rotation Monday night in San Francisco.

Rich Hill, sidelined by a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand, threw five no-hit innings for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga at San Jose and appears ready to return to the rotation. The left-hander’s spot would come up next Tuesday night … the same night Maeda is next scheduled to pitch.

With so many injured pitchers on the verge of returning, Maeda was asked if he was concerned that he will be skipped in the rotation next week.

“I try to keep those distractions out and really tried to focus on the pitching today,” he said in Japanese through an interpreter. “It’s really up to me to make anything into a positive. That’s what I try to do in any negative situation.”

Hyun-Jin Ryu (left-hip contusion) will come off the DL to start Thursday night’s opener of a four-game series at National League West-leading Colorado. Ace Clayton Kershaw will start Friday, followed by Alex Wood and Julio Urias over the weekend.

Wood, who is 3-0 with a 2.73 ERA in seven games, five of them starts, is expected to return to the bullpen when McCarthy and Hill return, but the Dodgers will still have six starters for five spots.

Unless the Dodgers go with a six-man rotation, like they did for a time in April, an awkward game of musical chairs could begin next week.

Roberts will deal with that so-called problem next week. He was too busy enjoying the current success of the Dodgers, who have won 10 of 12 games, and reveling in Hill’s minor-league effort to be weighed down by it Wednesday night.

It was Roberts, fearful that Hill’s blister would return, who pulled Hill from a perfect game after seven innings in Miami last September. A reporter seized on the controversy that move inspired Wednesday night when he jokingly asked Roberts if he had ordered Hill off the mound during his no-hitter in San Jose.

“Did he have a no-hitter tonight? Did he yell at Saylor like he yelled at me?” Roberts said, referring to Rancho Cucamonga manager Chris Saylor.

“I knew he got through five innings with 69-70 pitches, so that was good enough for me. I didn’t know he had a no-hitter going. I’m sure his conversation was a little less lively than ours.”

Saylor saw Roberts’ quote on social media and responded on his Twitter account, saying that Hill “had a very stern look, though … ”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

@MikeDiGiovanna