The big-league rotation includes Hiroki Kuroda, Randy Wolf, Chad Billingsley, Clayton Kershaw and James McDonald. Although Kuroda is for all practical purposes a veteran -- he was the staff ace for the Hiroshima Carp, with whom he spent 11 seasons before coming to the United States before last season -- he was technically a rookie last year, as was Kershaw.

McDonald is still classified as a rookie, and Billingsley is entering his third full season in the majors.

The Dodgers' Class AAA Albuquerque affiliate will begin its season on Thursday night against Omaha with a rotation of Eric Milton, Jeff Weaver, Shawn Estes, Eric Stults and right-handed prospect Miguel Pinango. Milton, Weaver, Estes and Schmidt have a combined 409 major league victories. Throw in Stults' four, and you get 413.

The Dodgers' big-league rotation, as it is presently constituted, has a grand total of 140 major league wins. Ninety of those belong to Wolf.

PADRES 4, DODGERS 2: Randy Wolf settled into a nice groove Tuesday, retiring eight consecutive batters in the third, fourth and fifth innings, but hit a wall in the sixth. He gave up three hits in a row to start the inning, including a two-run double by Chase Headley that put the Padres ahead to stay. One day after beating Jake Peavy for the first time since 2003, the Dodgers were befuddled by Chris Young and a surprisingly strong Padres bullpen.