LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers are sticking with the same pitching rotation order for the World Series that worked wonders for them in the National League Championship Series. Blake Snell will start Game 1
of the Fall Classic on Friday night, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start Game 2 on Saturday.
“Then we’ll kind of see in Game 3 and Game 4,” manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday on a conference call.
Roberts later said he hasn’t yet decided whether Shohei Ohtani will start Game 3 or Game 4. Tyler Glasnow would start the other game. During the NLCS, Glasnow started Game 3 and Ohtani in Game 4.
The schedule format of the World Series mirrors that of the League Championship round, with potentially seven games over nine days in a 2-3-2 format. Snell gets Game 1 because he’d be available to start again in Game 5 on four days rest, while Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani get extra rest between their starts. Similarly, Tyler Glasnow starting in Game 3 would make him available to start Game 7 on four days rest. Though in a Game 7 of the World Series, just about everyone would be available in relief if needed.
Starting pitching is driving the Dodgers bus this postseason, and it’s been a smooth ride so far with nine wins in 10 games. The rotation has a minuscule 1.40 ERA and 33.5-percent strikeout rate in 64 1/3 innings, and has pitched at least six innings in eight of 10 games, plus 5 2/3 innings in one of the other shorter starts. They’ve already surpassed the total from Dodgers starters during last year’s championship run (60 innings), which lasted 16 games.
In the NLCS, Snell, Yamamoto, Glasnow, and Ohtani accounted for 79.6 percent of the innings pitched, and allowed a total of only two runs in 28 2/3 innings, with 35 strikeouts. That included Snell facing the minimum in eight innings of Game 1 in Milwaukee, and Yamamoto in Game 2 pitching the Dodgers’ first postseason complete game in 21 years.
“As an offense, you just have so much confidence in these guys to keep matching zeroes or throwing zeroes up, where we can get going,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said Tuesday. “We’re all facing the best pitching in the game right now. You’re not making the World Series without great pitching.”
Snell in particular has been the stingiest, allowing two runs in 21 innings in his three starts, with 28 strikeouts against only five walks. None of those runs have come in the first six innings of his three postseason outings. Since returning from the injured list on August 2, after missing four months with left shoulder inflammation, Snell has a 1.96 ERA and 34.3-percent strikeout rate in 73 1 /3 innings, allowing only 16 total runs in 12 starts.
“With every great starting staff, you’ve gotta have that anchor. Blake’s always been a finisher,” Roberts said. “The way the season started, to have him back, to pitch the way he did sort of raised the bar. I thought he got Yamamoto even better, got [Glasnow] better, Shohei. It allowed for us to not ony prevent a couple few-game losing streaks, but to just win games, win series.”
