Why Dodgers are pushing back Shohei Ohtani’s NLCS pitching start

MILWAUKEE — Entering this week’s National League Championship Series, the Dodgers’ pitching plan seemed simple.

After Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow started the final two games of the team’s NL Division Series win over the Philadelphia Phillies, Shohei Ohtani and Blake Snell were next in line for Games 1 and 2 of the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers.

All the Dodgers had to do was roster Snell for Monday’s Game 1, giving him the opportunity to pitch again on four days’ rest in Game 5. Then they could ask Ohtani to pitch in Tuesday’s Game 2, allowing him to pitch before Wednesday’s scheduled off day (which has been the team’s preference for the two-way star) and be available for another start if the series returns to Milwaukee for Games 6 and 7.

On Sunday, however, manager Dave Roberts announced a different plan.

Snell will indeed participate in Game 1, trying to build on the 1.38 ERA he posted in his first two postseason outings.

But instead of Ohtani in Game 2, it will be Yamamoto who gets the ball, pushing Ohtani’s next appearance back to sometime later in this series, Roberts said.

“We just don’t know what day,” Roberts said of when Ohtani will get the ball. “But he will pitch at some point.”

This alignment was a surprise, but also had advantages from the Dodgers’ perspective.

Unlike Ohtani, who has had at least six days off between each of his outings since the start of July, Yamamoto has regularly given five days off this season. By starting him in Game 2, he can stay on the same schedule to pitch a potential Game 6 — something the Dodgers would have been less comfortable letting Ohtani do.

By pushing Ohtani back to at least Game 3, of course, the Dodgers will sacrifice their ability to get him two starts in this series. However, even if he plays in one of the Dodgers’ home games later this week, Ohtani could come out of the bullpen in a potential Game 7 — the kind of relief opportunity the team had been hinting at for weeks this season.

Because Ohtani will only make one start in the NLCS, Roberts said it’s also not as imperative that it happen before an off day.

“You have two other guys who can potentially throw regular rest,” Roberts said. “SO [it’s about] How do you get your best pitchers to get the most innings in a potential seven-game series? »

Outside of throwing considerations, however, there’s another reason why delaying Ohtani’s next throwing outing could also make sense.

In the NLDS, Ohtani went 1-for-18 at the plate with nine strikeouts. He looked particularly out of shape in Game 1, when he struck out four times in what was his first career playoff game, both hitting and pitching.

Coming out of the series, Roberts stressed the need for Ohtani to “recalibrate” at the plate, noting that the team “wasn’t going to win the World Series with that kind of performance” from its biggest star.

And while Roberts insisted Sunday that Ohtani’s offensive slump had “no bearing” on the team’s rotation shakeup, giving Ohtani two games early in the NLCS to focus solely on hitting certainly wouldn’t hurt his efforts to turn his swing around.

“I expect a different outing from Shohei on the offensive end of this series,” Roberts said.

At least for the next few days, this will be his only focus.