Dodgers clubhouse crew well-versed in cleaning up champagne celebrations

Alex Torres, the Dodgers’ clubhouse manager, said he was a little torn by the champagne-and-beer-fueled celebration Friday that followed the team’s division-clinching victory.

On one hand it was a tremendous achievement by a group of guys with whom he spends most of his waking hours. On the other hand, it completely trashed the clubhouse, soaking the carpet and soiling the low acoustic ceiling.

But overnight a huge cleaning crew steam-cleaned the blue carpet and treated the ceiling tiles so when Torres arrived at work late Saturday morning, the only reminder of the party was the smell of champagne, which hung in the air like extra-sweet air freshener.

“Aside from the smell, it’s like nothing happened,” Torres said.

The carpet was also sticky in some places and wet in others, but for the most part the clubhouse was back to normal in less than 12 hours.

“It’s a group effort,” Torres said. “Stadium operations and everybody else.”

The Dodgers have had a lot of practice with cleaning up champagne parties since they clinched three of their last five division titles at home. The team had a chance to win this title a few days before, in Philadelphia, which would have meant a celebration at Citizens Bank Park, something the clubhouse crew there made known it was dreading.

Torres said it didn’t make a difference to him; cleaning up after a party is still better than going home on the first weekend in October.

“You always want to do it the sooner the better,” he said of reaching the playoffs. “As long as you get it done.”

Dodgers might play in Mexico

The Dodgers and San Diego Padres might play a series in Monterrey, Mexico, in May.

Major League Baseball tentatively had scheduled the Dodgers and Padres to play in Mexico City in April but issues with the development of a new stadium there compelled MLB to look elsewhere, even before the powerful earthquake that struck Mexico City on Tuesday.

Commissioner Rob Manfred said MLB had started to look at Mexican ballparks that hosted major league games. The Monterrey ballpark is the only one that has hosted regular-season MLB games, most recently when the Padres played the Colorado Rockies in 1999.

The Dodgers last played internationally in 2014, when they opened the regular season in Australia, against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Padres market extensively in Mexico and played a 1996 regular-season series in Monterrey against the New York Mets.

Mexican news reports Saturday said the games were set for May 4-6, which would replace a three-game Dodgers-Padres series scheduled that weekend in San Diego.

The league’s original international schedule next season called for a series in Mexico in April and another in Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic in May.

Justin Turner is ailing

Third baseman Justin Turner, who is battling a stomach virus, was one of the last players to arrive in the Dodgers clubhouse. Turner, who showed up wearing a USC wool cap and a Trojans football jersey, said he felt better than he did Friday, but still not good enough to play.

“He’s still trying to get his strength back,” said manager Dave Roberts, who wouldn’t venture a guess as to when Turner, the National League’s second-leading hitter, will return to the lineup.

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