LOS ANGELES -- His anonymity remains intact, allowing Los Angeles Dodgers rookie pitcher Ross Stripling to take in some local sights Monday.

If his first major league outing is any indication, though, his ability to mix in with the crowd in Los Angeles will become more complicated.

Stripling will make his second career start Thursday night after setting the bar for himself about as high as it can go following his 7 1/3 no-hit innings Friday at San Francisco. Yet the 26-year-old right-hander is not looking at his next outing as a can't-win proposition since his debut will be hard to top.

"I think that was the biggest thing you take from that is that I can get big league hitters out," Stripling said Wednesday. "You proved that to yourself. Sure, it's not always going to go that well. You're going to give up hits and runs, obviously, but just to be able to have that confidence and to get a chance to prove to the front office that giving me this spot was an OK decision, you know? I think that's what I took from it. You just build on it, man."

But what about the no-hitter that could have been? What about the idea that no-hit innings are what is expected now?

"You can't go out there expecting to pitch a no-hitter, no way," he said. "But making big pitches in big situations, I was able to make some in my last outing, and when you get in the stretch, that's when you make your most important pitches. Now that I have experience doing that in the major leagues, just feel more comfortable in those pressure situations making big pitches."

The advantage that the Arizona Diamondbacks have Thursday is that Stripling is a known commodity now. The Giants had minimal knowledge of Stripling and were handcuffed by a devastating top-to-bottom curveball.

The simple concept is that Stripling will continue to do what he did the first time, but he is not taking such an obvious approach in his first Dodger Stadium start. He plans on being just as mysterious to the Diamondbacks as he was to the Giants.

"I will go with what works, and if they make a quick adjustment, he'll have to adjust as well," he said. "One thing that is nice is that I feel I can throw four pitches in any count. Last Friday my curveball was working because they probably hadn't seen it before. These guys probably now know the scouting report:'He has a 12-6 curveball.' Well, maybe it will be more cutters, changeups [on Thursday]."

Manager Dave Roberts admitted that he will be more willing to let Stripling go a few pitches further in this start, but he insisted he didn't have a hard 100-pitch limit Friday. He just didn't want his young pitcher to get too far down a treacherous road, so he made the call to go to the bullpen.

The very next batter, the Giants' Trevor Brown, hit a game-tying, two-run home run against reliever Chris Hatcher. The Dodgers lost the game in the 10th inning when Brandon Crawford hit a home run.

The Stripling story still resonated, though, even though it was the Giants that actually won the game. Even with a Clayton Kershaw-Madison Bumgarner matchup the next day, plenty of the buzz down by the bay was still about the Dodgers' rookie pitcher.

While Stripling said it seemed like his debut start took forever to arrive, things have gone by faster this time. His arrival on the scene no doubt was one of the reasons.

"As far as the excitement of the last one, that's kind of behind and you can treat this one as normal," Stripling said.