SAN DIEGO—Under the current MLB playoff format, division winners continue to be dropped like so many foul pop-ups in the stands. In the National League, Philadelphia and Milwaukee are already gone. In the American League, Houston is dead. Cleveland is trailing Detroit.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are hanging by a thread after defeating the San Diego Padres, 8-0, in an elimination game Wednesday at Petco Park, and are heading into an all-or-nothing Game 5 unsure of their starting pitcher. Only the New York Yankees find themselves with an advantage heading into Game 4 Thursday at Kansas City after beating the Royals Wednesday, 3-2.
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It’s become clear after three years of this format that division winners come into the division series flat, having to sit around for five days while the wild card teams get to play. It’s no longer just a pattern, it’s a fact. No National League division winner has made it to the LCS in the current playoff structure.
The Dodgers, for instance, are 3-8 in NL Division Series play since 2022. Perhaps extending the Division Series to a best-of-seven rather than a best-of-five would be a help, giving division winners more time to sharpen up.
“Right now, I wish it were seven games,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said on Wednesday. “Obviously the seven-game series certainly gives a better test of the opponents. We’ll see if we can work on that. But I definitely like the seven-game series for sure.”
Would it be a remedy for sitting around those five days?
“No doubt, absolutely,” Roberts responded.
But the Dodgers have to work within the current system, and they came up big in San Diego in Game 4 Wednesday night.
The Dodgers didn’t have a healthy starting pitcher and went with their bullpen the entire game. First baseman Freddie Freeman was a late scratch from the lineup because of his high right ankle sprain. Shortstop Miguel Rojas is so beat up he was restricted to the bench.
Yet, when the Dodgers needed it the most, eight pitchers and $1.4 billion worth of star players at the top of the lineup beat the Padres.
That forces a decisive Game 5 on Friday evening at Dodger Stadium. The winner will play the New York Mets in the best-of-seven NL Championship Series beginning on Sunday in either Los Angeles or San Diego.
The pitching matchup could pit a pair of Japanese hurlers against each other: 12-year veteran Yu Darvish for the Padres and rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the Dodgers. Padres manager Mike Shildt tapped Darvish, while Roberts hadn’t announced a decision, saying only that Yamamoto is under consideration.
Darvish missed three months during the middle of the regular season because of a personal matter, but dominated Game 2 at Dodger Stadium, pitching seven innings of one-run, three-hit ball to record the 10—2 win.
Wednesday, the Dodger bullpen held the Padres to seven hits, three of them in the late innings when the game was already out of reach. That’s a route that could be utilized again.
Both the Padres and Dodgers hold home field advantage over the Mets, who defeated the NL East champion Phillies 4-1 to win their NLDS on the strength of a Game 4-winning grand slam by Francisco Lindor Wednesday at New York’s Citi Field.
It’s saying a lot that a team like the Dodgers with a $241 million payroll lacks enough starting pitching to fill out a playoff series.
The two-way Ohtani, who earns $700 million over 10 years after coming to the Dodgers as a free agent, is rehabbing still from right elbow surgery and isn’t expected to pitch again until next season. Yamamoto is also one of the Dodgers’ highest-paid players, having signed a 12-year, $325 million deal.
Yamamoto, who came over from Japan this past offseason, missed almost two months with a right shoulder injury, and lasted only three innings in Game 1, allowing five hits and five runs, although the Dodgers came back to win that one, 7-5.
That’s why Roberts is reluctant to name him the starter for critical Game 5.
“We don’t have a Game 5 starter yet,” Roberts said. “Fortunately, our pen was very efficient. So, we have some options.”
Mookie Betts, who’s on a 12-year, $365 million contract, kick-started the Dodgers offense early, batting second in the order behind Ohtani.
Betts hit a first-inning homer, and Ohtani had a second-inning RBI single. They were on base five times in the game with a homer, two singles and two walks.
Betts has now hit first-inning home runs in consecutive games. It could have been three in a row had San Diego outfielder Jurickson Profar not reached into the left field seats Sunday at Dodger Stadium to grab that potential home run.
“If that one fell, maybe we’re talking differently now (about the series),” Betts said.
Even though it was an out, it seems to have freed Betts from a prolonged postseason slump.
Much has been made about Betts’ recent postseason hitting, or lack thereof. He was 2-for-26 the past two postseasons, 0-for-11 last year. When he started this series 0-for-6, the plot thickened.
He then homered in Game 3, igniting a 4-for-9 run.
Betts said he’s spent most of his waking hours in the batting cage trying to straighten things out.
“Hit. Kept hitting. That’s all I’ve been doing. That’s what I know. I work,” he said. “I had to turn off all social media because that was all negative. And I worked hard and finally saw one fall and I think we’re all right now.”
With Freeman struggling, the starting pitching on life support, and no Game 7 in the Division Series, the timing couldn’t have been better. “We’ve got a Game 5,” Betts said. “That’s all I’m really focused on.”
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