TORONTO — There may be no better reminder of how far the Dodgers have come than the opposing pitcher on Monday. When the World Collection returns to Dodger Stadium for Sport 3, the beginning pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays is scheduled to be Max Scherzer.
It’s possible you’ll bear in mind his transient tenure with the Dodgers 4 years in the past, which ended with an elimination recreation through which Scherzer mentioned he couldn’t pitch. The Dodgers misplaced, the final domino in a cascade triggered by a entrance workplace that miscast its people as widgets in a seek for even the tiniest of edges.
Don’t simply take my phrase for it. This was the phrase from Corridor of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez on the time: “Dodgers analytics dept really misused probably the best rotation in all of baseball. …They need to figure out a way to let starters be who they really are and let them pitch how they are used to.”
Within the 2021 postseason, by selection, the Dodgers used an opener thrice, a 20-game winner as a center reliever, and a Corridor of Fame starter as a more in-depth. There can be no parade.
Within the 2024 postseason, and never by selection, the Dodgers ran 4 bullpen video games. There can be a parade.
In 2025, the Dodgers are merely throwing out a top-flight beginning pitcher in each recreation. Presumably, there’s nothing for the entrance workplace to overthink right here.
Simply sit again and benefit from the present — on Saturday, Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s second straight full recreation present. This have to be much less irritating, a minimum of.
“I don’t think it’s less stressful,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior mentioned to an inquiring middle-aged reporter with grey hair getting just a little too noticeable. “We’ve got matching hair.”
Nonetheless, there isn’t a lot thriller within the Dodgers’ 10-2 postseason file. In each recreation through which their beginning pitcher has gotten an out within the sixth inning, they’ve gained. In each recreation through which their beginning pitcher has not gotten an out within the sixth inning, they’ve misplaced.
To the rotation of Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani, take a bow.
To Andrew Friedman and his entrance workplace, take a bow too. Simply because your possession supplied you with a $1.35-billion rotation doesn’t assure that you’ll go away effectively sufficient alone.
Within the last month of the season, bear in mind, the Dodgers entertained a flurry of concepts about how you can finest mix a proficient rotation and an iffy bullpen into an efficient October employees.
Would they deploy Ohtani in reduction? Would they use their finest arms as typically as doable, because the Washington Nationals did in 2019, once they used their prime three starters — Scherzer, Patrick Corbin and Stephen Strasburg — as starters and relievers?
The Dodgers let their starters be starters. The traditional knowledge doesn’t at all times have to be challenged.
“Clearly, Blake Snell, Yama, Glasnow, Shohei, all really good pitchers,” Prior mentioned. “I think we can all agree that they’re all really good pitchers, and any team would probably roll them out in a playoff game.
“So I don’t think this is any master plan.”
Stated catcher Will Smith: “I think that’s just this team. We have four starters now that are pitching their best. … We’re just riding those guys.”
Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow is about to start out Sport 3 of the World Collection towards the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Occasions )
That brings us again to 2021, when the entrance workplace determined one of the simplest ways to method the winner-take-all finale of the division sequence towards the San Francisco Giants was to make use of reliever Corey Knebel as an opener, 20-game winner Julio Urías from the third via the sixth innings, nearer Kenley Jansen within the eighth inning and Scherzer because the nearer.
That’s the sort of all-hands-on-deck method higher suited to the top of a World Collection. The Dodgers gained that recreation towards the Giants, however Scherzer couldn’t full 5 innings in his first championship sequence begin and mentioned he couldn’t take the ball for his subsequent begin, an elimination recreation.
“My arm’s been locked up the past couple of days,” Scherzer mentioned then.
He mentioned that he can be the one in danger if he weren’t trustworthy with the Dodgers about his situation, relatively than making an attempt to push via.
“Guys, when they lie, they go out there and they take on too much, then they blow out,’’ he said. “That’s the ultimate risk here.”
That line of thought didn’t go over too effectively in some corners of the clubhouse. Urías was miffed as a result of he believed the Dodgers didn’t consider in him. Walker Buehler, who began on quick relaxation as a late alternative for Scherzer, gave up 4 runs in 4 innings. The Dodgers have been eradicated.
Scherzer’s final World Collection begin, for the Texas Rangers in 2023, lasted three innings. He isn’t occupied with the Rangers, or for that matter the Dodgers.
“I wouldn’t be looking backwards at all for any motivation,’’ he said here Saturday. “I have plenty of motivation. I’m here to win and I’ve got a clubhouse full of guys who want to win too. So we’re a great team and that’s the only thing I need to think about.”
The one factor the Dodgers want to fret about on Monday, a minimum of primarily based on their postseason run: Can they get six or seven innings from Glasnow? If they will, they need to be midway to the World Collection championship.
Highlights from the Dodgers’ 5-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Sport 2 of the World Collection.
