SAN DIEGO >> Consider, for a moment, what the possibilities might have been.
Imagine that the Dodgers hadn’t lost what amounts to an additional starting rotation-plus worth of pitchers, in what has been a baseball-wide siege of arm/elbow/shoulder injuries but one that hit them particularly hard. What would their playoff rotation have looked like?
Maybe Tyler Glasnow as the ace, a fully functional Yoshinobu Yamamoto (rather than one still coming back from a triceps injury) as a solid Game 2 starter, followed by Jack Flaherty — sure, they’d still have traded for him — and a healthy Clayton Kershaw, or a fully rejuvenated Walker Buehler. You’d take your chances with that foursome any time, wouldn’t you?
OK, back to reality, on a night when Ryan Brasier was handed the ball to be an opener in the most important game of the Dodgers season.
Bullpen games, as a rule, are not as much of a disadvantage as they might seem. The Dodgers have been over .500 in such games the last three regular seasons, and Brasier and Co. got some help from an awakened lineup Wednesday. By routing the Padres 8-0, and quieting Petco Park considerably from its decibel high of Game 3, they put themselves in position to not only play a Game 5 in The Ravine on Friday but also — potentially — banish the ghosts of the past two Octobers.
And maybe, instead of bemoaning that the Dodgers are facing elimination games, we should be hailing them for getting to this point after their original blueprint was torn up so.
Glasnow and Kershaw, of course, were done for the year before the postseason began. Young prospects Emmet Sheehan and River Ryan were early season casualties, and former All-Star Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May were never available — though the prospect of Gonsolin as a late-season addition was tantalizing for a while. Bobby Miller basically pitched his way off the roster after his own IL stint, and Buehler has not consistently been the same big-game pitcher we’d become accustomed to.
Pitching matters.
And, yes, a team that made over $1 billion worth of trades and signings last winter in pursuit of a championship found itself going into Wednesday in the same predicament as the past two seasons, but it’s not totally underachievement. Should we maybe wonder instead how they won an MLB-best 98 games during the regular season, with 18 different pitchers on the injured list at various times?
Really, who would you blame? The training staff? The pitching coach? Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who doubles as team physician and baseball’s preeminent orthopedic surgeon?
Yeah, I know, the reflex answer to the blame game is Dave Roberts, and feel free to let me know specifically why he’s to blame for everything you don’t like about the team. But stop and consider that a lot of what Roberts does, strategically and lineup-wise, comes from the front office. (Including, I suspect, the order of pitchers Wednesday night.)
If you were going to rip him for losing this series before Wednesday night, maybe give him a little credit for the way his team staved off elimination in Game 4.
Asked in the pregame availability what the tone was in the clubhouse Wednesday afternoon, Teoscar Hernández said, “Everybody looks, appears normal. Everybody is taking care of what they need to do to get ready for tonight. Just the same thing, same energy. We’re trying to support each other and trying to bring the energy, that positive energy to everyone so we can be ready for the game today.”
And this was before everyone realized that not only would Miguel Rojas (torn adductor muscle) sit out Game 4, but Freddie Freeman (ankle) would be a late scratch as well. So Hernandez moved up to third in the order, Max Muncy grabbed his first baseman’s mitt, Kiké Hernández went into the lineup at third, Tommy Edman moved to shortstop and Chris Taylor found his name in the lineup in center field.
And away they went.
Mookie Betts, about whom much had been written regarding his lack of postseason performance, homered for the second straight game (acknowledging that it could have been three in a row except for Jurickson Profar’s robbery in Game 2). Later, Shohei Ohtani (1 for his last 11 with six strikeouts going back to the sixth inning of Game 1), drove in the Dodgers’ second run, reached base three times and would have scored in the fourth had third base umpire Mark Ripperger not deflected Teoscar Hernández’ drive, allowing Manny Machado to retrieve it and throw Ohtani out at the plate.
And when Gavin Lux drove Wandy Peralta’s first pitch over the right field fence for a two-run homer and an 8-0 lead in the top of the seventh, Petco Park got as quiet as it’s been this week.
Sort of like Dodger Stadium was in the late stages of Game 2.
“I think we showed it (the ability to respond) during the regular season,” Teoscar Hernández said. “I don’t think being in a playoff is going to be different. We have the players and the people that can make this happen. And I trust every single guy in that clubhouse. ... Not thinking about the game, the next game, game No. 5. Just thinking about today. And we really are confident that we can get back on track and win tonight.”
Given the results of the past two Octobers, just coming out and putting their stamp on the game Wednesday was a massive improvement.
Really, the way this Dodgers season has gone, anything’s possible Friday. (And, maybe, beyond.)
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
