MILWAUKEE -- Slowly but surely, pitchers are starting to realize that pitching to Adrian Gonzalez will lead to big, big trouble.

Gonzalez earned National League Player of the Month honors for April, batting .383 with 19 RBIs and a .432 on-base percentage in 21 games.

But through that stretch he only walked seven times.

In the first two games of a four-game series at Milwaukee, though, Gonzalez has nearly doubled that total, drawing five free passes.

Monday, in the series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers, Gonzalez reached base in all four of his plate appearances, drawing three walks. He also was hit by a Kyle Lohse pitch in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 4-3 loss.

After walking in the first inning Tuesday, he finally recorded his first official plate appearance of the series, striking out against right-hander Matt Garza, then drew another walk and scored in the sixth before belting a two-run home run in the seventh that broke the game open for the Dodgers.

“There’s always guys that you identify that you say, ‘We’re not going to let this guy beat us,’” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “There hasn’t been a whole lot of it because the guys around [Gonzalez] have been pretty good.”

Mattingly isn't surprised by the way his first baseman is performing at the start of the 2015 season. Gonzalez carried a .361 average, nine home runs and 22 RBI into the Dodgers’ game Wednesday night at Milwaukee.

“I hope he’s locked in like this for the whole year,” Mattingly said. “Sometimes you just get that year when everything goes right and you stay hot. Last year he started like this, too, but then he had a bad month and that’s really unusual for Adrian to have a bad spell like that.

“But whoever we’ve put behind him has been swinging the bat pretty good. So that’s what we have to continue to do.”

Short bench: The Dodgers sent left-hander Daniel Coulombe back to Triple-A Oklahoma City on Wednesday and recalled right-hander Joe Wieland, who is scheduled to start against the Brewers, leaving Mattingly with just four players on his bench for the second straight game.

“There was one game that we could have used one more pinch hitter in there,” Mattingly said. “But other than that, it hasn't really been too big of a factor. We're a fairly flexible group as far as being able to move guys around. But it still hurts you with the pinch-hitter situation sometimes.”

Break coming: In the middle of a stretch of 17 consecutive games without a day off, Mattingly said he’d give some of his regulars a break over the next few days.

"I've got [Juan Uribe] in there tomorrow,” Mattingly said. “We'll get [Rollins] a day tomorrow with the day game. And we'll try to get a couple guys off their feet in Denver.

“Jimmy [Rollins] is going to get regular days off. Third base, obviously, there's days off, the outfield other than Joc [Pederson] there's days off, and Adrian [Gonzalez]. Other than that, it's really [Gonzalez, Howie Kendrick and Pederson] that are daily, and we don't see many lefties. So [Andre Ethier] doesn't really get many [days off] at this point.”

Puig to start rehab assignment: Yasiel Puig took part in running drills Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, and barring any issues, he’ll kick off a rehab assignment Thursday at High-A Rancho Cucamonga, where he’ll serve as the designated hitter.

"As long as he comes out tomorrow and isn't all stiff and tight,” Mattingly said, “I think he's going to DH tomorrow."