Exactly 25 hours before the biggest game of his team's season, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was sure of only one thing about his plans to pitch Game 5 of the National League Division on Friday night.
“Obviously I'm sure Yoshinobu will be a part of it,” Roberts said Thursday, referring to the $325 million offseason signing and starting starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
What does this mean exactly?
“I just don't know,” Roberts said.
Or at least he wasn't ready to say it yet.
When the Dodgers made a late change to their starting rotation in this series last week, they did so largely with Game 5 in mind.
Read more: Hernández: Don't think too much, Dodgers. Game 5 should be another bullpen game
After originally announcing the trade deadline takeover of Jack Flaherty to start Game 1, the Dodgers instead landed Yamamoto for the opener and Flaherty for Game 2.
The idea was to have both pitchers available for a potential fifth game, giving Yamamoto the standard five days of rest (a schedule he has followed all season since arriving from Japan) and Flaherty the typical four days off that most MLB starters take before starts.
However, since then, circumstances have changed in the four games in which the Dodgers and San Diego Padres split to establish a winner-take-all schedule on Friday.
Not only was Yamamoto knocked down in Game 1, giving up five runs in three innings, but it was also considered a tilting problem that plagued him early in his MLB debut season.
Meanwhile, Flaherty was only slightly better in Game 2 as he managed to get to the sixth inning, but also lost four runs and lost.
Then, of course, there was the success the Dodgers had in: Game 4. Bullpen Game shutting out the Padres on an evening of eight different relievers totaling nine dominant innings.
It asked the question that accompanied Thursday's break: whether the Dodgers would start Yamamoto or Flaherty as usual, or back away from a plan that was tantalizingly effective in Wednesday's elimination-game victory.
It seems the answer may lie somewhere in between.
Yamamoto seems likely to drop the ball at some point. Flaherty will also be available, according to Roberts. But the appeal of another bullpen game still remains – perhaps one in which Yamamoto and/or Flaherty take care of a few innings but leave most of the game to the relief corps in the shutdown.
“We're still talking about it,” Roberts said. “I think the main variable is that our guys (relieved) to go out today, play football and see how they feel, which will give us a little more information about who will ultimately take over and who will start the game . “
“But considering what they did last night,” Roberts added of the bullpen, “it makes everybody feel pretty confident going into Game 5.”
The simplest scenario could be for the Dodgers to use opener Yamamoto and ask him to come out of the bullpen for larger innings.
Yamamoto has been sidelined before in his career, both as a young pitcher in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball League and during last year's World Baseball Classic with the national team.
Roberts said Yamamoto told the band he was open to performing again on Friday night.
“I just feel like he'll do anything we ask him to do,” Roberts said.
As for Yamamoto's potential issue with pitches overturning in the first game, Roberts said the 25-year-old right-hander has “cleaned it up” over the past week.
“Where Yoshinobu is, I feel really comfortable,” Roberts said.
That didn't stop Roberts from illustrating the merits of a pitching plan with a heavier bullpen — especially considering the 0.93 ERA that the team's seven leverage relievers (Michael Kopech, Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Daniel Hudson, Ryan Brasier, Alex Vesia and Anthony Banda) combined in this series.
Read more: Shaikin: The Dodgers want fans to be excited about Game 5. “Bring energy, but do it smartly.”
“You're very neutral about our guys,” Roberts said. “I think we have a lot of different players that we can put in certain lanes or in certain spots.”
It's unclear where Yamamoto or anyone else on the staff will fit into Friday's scenario.
“I think our only goal,” Roberts said, “is to find the best pitchers to prevent tomorrow's runs.”
It's a task that will decide the fate of the Dodgers' season.
Sign up to receive more Dodgers news at Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the beginning of each series.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
