Dodgers’ World Series pitching strategy centered on simplicity

TORONTO— There may be no better reminder of how far the Dodgers have come than the opposing pitcher on Monday. When the World Series returns to Dodger Stadium for Game 3, the starting pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays is expected to be Max Scherzer.

You may remember his brief stint with the Dodgers four years ago, which ended with a playoff game in which Scherzer said he couldn’t pitch. The Dodgers lost, the final domino in a cascade triggered by a front office that misinterpreted its humans as widgets in a search for the slightest edge.

Don’t just take my word for it. That was the word from Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez at the time: “The Dodgers analytics department has really abused probably the best rotation in all of baseball. … They’ve got to find a way to let the starters be who they really are and let them pitch the way they’re used to.”

During the 2021 postseason, by choice, the Dodgers used an opener three times, a 20-game winner as a middle reliever and a Hall of Fame starter as a closer. There would be no parade.

During the 2024 postseason, and not by choice, the Dodgers played four games in the bullpen. There would be a parade.

In 2025, the Dodgers simply eliminate a top starting pitcher every game. Presumably the front office doesn’t have to overthink anything here.

Sit back and enjoy the show – Saturday, Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s second full-length game show in a row. It should at least be less stressful.

“I don’t think it’s any less stressful,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior told a middle-aged reporter, whose gray hair was becoming a little too visible. “We have matching hair.”

Still, there’s not much mystery in the Dodgers’ 10-2 postseason record. In every game in which their starting pitcher got an out in the sixth inning, they won. In every game in which their starting pitcher didn’t get an out in the sixth inning, they lost.

To Yamamoto’s rotation, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani, take a bow.

To Andrew Friedman and his front office, salute as well. Just because your property provided you with a $1.35 billion turnover doesn’t mean you’ll leave pretty well alone.

During the final month of the season, remember, the Dodgers had a flurry of ideas about how best to combine a talented rotation and a questionable bullpen to form an effective team in October.

Would they want to deploy Ohtani in relief? Would they use their best weapons as often as possible, like the Washington Nationals did in 2019, when they used their top three starters – Scherzer, Patrick Corbin and Stephen Strasburg – as starters And relievers?

The Dodgers let their starters be starters. It is not always necessary to challenge preconceived ideas.

“Obviously Blake Snell, Yama, Glasnow, Shohei, all really good pitchers,” Prior said. “I think we can all agree that they are all very good pitchers, and any team would probably have them in a playoff game.

“So I don’t think it’s a master plan.”

Receiver Will Smith said: “I think it’s just this team. We have four starters now that are doing their best. … We’re just riding those guys.”

Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow is expected to start Game 3 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

That brings us back to 2021, when the front office decided the best way to approach the Division Series finale against the San Francisco Giants was to use reliever Corey Knebel as an opener, 20-game winner Julio Urías from the third to sixth innings, closer Kenley Jansen in the eighth inning and Scherzer as the closer.

It’s the kind of participatory approach better suited to the end of a World Series. The Dodgers won that game against the Giants, but Scherzer was unable to complete five innings in his first start in the Championship Series and said he could not take the ball for his next start, a playoff game.

“My arm has been blocked the last few days,” Scherzer said then.

He said he would be the one at risk if he wasn’t honest with the Dodgers about his condition, rather than trying to get through it.

“Guys, when they lie, they overdo it, and then they explode,” he said. “That’s the ultimate risk here.”

This line of thinking didn’t go over well in some corners of the clubhouse. Urías was upset because he thought the Dodgers didn’t believe in him. Walker Buehler, who started on short rest as a late replacement for Scherzer, allowed four runs in four innings. The Dodgers were eliminated.

Scherzer’s last World Series start, for the Texas Rangers in 2023, lasted three innings. He doesn’t think about the Rangers, or for that matter the Dodgers.

“I wouldn’t look back at all for any motivation,” he said Saturday. “I have a lot of motivation. I’m here to win and I have a club full of guys who also want to win. So we’re a great team and that’s the only thing I have to think about.

The only thing the Dodgers have to worry about Monday, at least based on their postseason run: Can they get six or seven innings out of Glasnow? If they can, they should be halfway to the World Series championship.

Highlights from the Dodgers’ 5-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 2 of the World Series.