The Los Angeles Dodgers are back in the playoffs for the 13th consecutive season and are set to host the Cincinnati Reds in a best-of-three Wild Card Series at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers enter the matchup in an enviable position due to their starting rotation, which is at full strength after going stretches of the season navigating injuries.
A potential Dodgers postseason rotation could consist of Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow.
The team’s surplus of options should also benefit the bullpen as Emmet Sheehan and Roki Sasaki are expected to move to relief roles.
“I couldn’t feel more confident with the starting staff,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And you know what, not to have a recency bias, but the last couple days with the ‘pen, I feel really good about some things.
“The offense, the defense, has been fantastic. But the starting rotation, I’ll pit us against anyone.”
Roberts raved about the talent level of the current Dodgers rotation and compared it to the team’s 2015 pitching staff, which featured Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu.
“I wasn’t on this staff when they had Kershaw and Greinke in ’15,” Roberts began. “That was a pretty good one, with Ryu. This is as good of a starting staff as I’ve had going into the postseason, by far.”
Dodgers rotation for Wild Card Series
Needing only three starters for the Wild Card round, the Dodgers decided on Snell for Game 1 and Yamamoto in Game 2. If the series goes to a winner-take-all Game 3, Ohtani would make his postseason pitching debut at that point.
Meanwhile, Glasnow might be available out of the bullpen but otherwise could be relied upon to start the NL Division Series if the Dodgers were to advance.
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