The players’ voices were still hoarse. The clubhouse carpet was still sticky.
But, less than 24 hours after a booze-soaked National League Division Series celebration Friday night, the Dodgers were back at Chavez Ravine on Saturday, shifting their focus to Game 1 of the NL Championship Series against the New York Mets on Sunday night.
“We’ve got to play good baseball,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Come with the same intensity, focus and energy that we had this last series.”
Like their opening-round series against the San Diego Padres, the Dodgers’ biggest questions for the best-of-seven NLCS revolve around the pitching staff.
And to that end, Saturday brought some bad news.
Top left-handed reliever Alex Vesia is “highly unlikely” to be on the NLCS roster, Roberts said, after suffering an intercostal injury in Game 5 on Friday.
That development was coupled with the reality that the Dodgers won’t be able to ride their bullpen as hard in a seven-game series as they did in the five-game NLDS.
“I’ve got to lean on other guys to cover some innings,” Roberts said.
In other words, the Dodgers will need more from their shorthanded starting rotation.
Outside of starting Jack Flaherty in Sunday’s opener, the Dodgers aren’t yet sure how their pitching plan will look beyond that.
“We have a lot of good options,” Roberts said. “But right now, anything’s on the table for Game 2.”
One factor the Dodgers will have to navigate is Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s schedule.
While the rookie Japanese right-hander was dominant over five scoreless innings in Game 5, he will likely only pitch once in the NLCS — he’s currently lined up for Game 4 — as the team continues to prioritize the five-days-of-rest routine he has had all year.
“Any deviation would be short rest [for him],” Roberts said. “He hasn’t done that.”
That leaves a few options for Games 2 and 3.
Walker Buehler is next up in the rotation after Flaherty, though a bullpen game early in the series might also have appeal.
Landon Knack was the fourth starting pitcher on the NLDS roster, but was used for just one inning of relief against the Padres at the end of a Game 4 blowout.
Tony Gonsolin also remains “in the mix,” Roberts said, but appears to be more of a fall-back alternative after spending the entirety of the regular season recovering from Tommy John surgery.
“We’ve got to be very convicted that he’s the right decision if we are going to activate him,” Roberts said.
Thus, the most logical plan appears to be starting Buehler in either Game 2 or 3, and using a bullpen game (perhaps one including more work from Knack) in the other.
As of Saturday, however, no final decision had been made — or, at least, publicly announced.
What would help is a strong Game 1 start from Flaherty, the stalwart trade deadline acquisition who struggled in his lone NLDS outing, giving up four runs in 5 ⅓ innings in Game 2.
A Los Angeles native, Flaherty’s most vivid memories of going to Dodger games growing up were — fittingly — from the Dodgers’ 2015 NLDS against the Mets, including Game 2 when Chase Utley infamously broke Ruben Tejada’s leg on a hard slide at second base.
Like that year’s division round, the Dodgers-Padres series last week featured heated emotions. Flaherty was in the middle of the most contentious exchange, trading words with Manny Machado in Game 2 after hitting Fernando Tatis Jr. with a pitch, and seeing Machado throw a ball at the Dodgers’ dugout the following inning.
Looking back on his Game 2 start Saturday, Flaherty conceded he was “trying to do too much and letting emotions get in the way of things” during his outing — his fourth in a row, going back to the regular season, yielding at least three runs, and third out of those four he failed to complete the sixth inning.
“From here going forward,” he said, his mindset is “don’t try to be perfect, and go out and pitch my game and let the results happen … making sure that I’m just mentally locked in and focused.”
Come Sunday night, the Dodgers will need him to be.
In a series where the starters will have to shoulder a larger burden, the tone of the NLCS will be up to him to set.
