Los Angeles Dodgers vs Kansas City Royals

Interleague games in the middle of the schedule are supposed to be the throwaway ones. Then you get there early on a weeknight, the sun is doing that thing behind the San Gabriels, the park is still half empty and completely quiet, and you understand that the throwaway game is the best version of this place.

Gates open two hours before first pitch and hardly anyone uses them. Batting practice in a half-full stadium is a different sport: you hear the contact, the players are close enough to talk to, and the light across the infield before the crowd arrives does not exist at any other hour.

Then it fills, because it always does — fifty-six thousand people out of Koreatown and East LA and the Valley, plus everyone who moved here from a city with a worse team. Dodger Dogs have been under public dispute since 1962. The third-base pavilion gets loud before anywhere else.

Skip the parking lot; the Express runs from Union Station.

Take the person who says baseball is boring. Sit them down before first pitch and let the empty park make the argument.