Major League Baseball

Can the Dodgers win with a tattered rotation? Shohei Ohtani & Co. offer proof of concept

Published Oct. 6, 2024 1:22 p.m. ET

LOS ANGELES — The scene was all too familiar. The smoke from the pregame pyrotechnics in center field had barely lifted, the reverberations from the flyover of the F-35 jets before first pitch had barely stopped and the twirling of the blue rally towels had barely ended when the pomp and circumstance of Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium suddenly ceased.

For the second straight postseason, a division foe plated multiple runs before the Dodgers had taken a single October swing. Again, a shaky rotation threatened to sap the energy from a buzzing building and derail another season. An unease enveloped a stadium full of more than 53,000 fans, who had seen this movie before.

This time, though, a new character was introduced to the production.

This time, however decimated the pitching staff, however miserable the start, however slim the chances are with a tattered rotation, it feels like there might be hope.

This time, there's Shohei Ohtani.

"We've obviously had a lot of good players," manager Dave Roberts said. "But when you get a player like Shohei, who clearly embraces these moments and has the ability to carry a ballclub, I do think that there's something to alleviating the … I hate saying pressure, but the pressure for other players."

A year after allowing six runs in the top of the first inning in a dismal start to the 2023 National League Division Series against the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers made progress in the opening frame; they surrendered three.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto's major-league playoff debut began much like his major-league debut. Facing the same Padres opponent that pummeled the former NPB star for five runs in one inning in Korea back in March, an unforgiving San Diego lineup plated three runs within the first four batters of Saturday's Game 1, capped by a stadium-silencing two-run shot from Manny Machado.

It felt like déjà vu, especially after the Dodgers failed to respond in the bottom of the frame despite two runners on base.

The start was reminiscent not only of last postseason, when the wild-card D-backs outscored the Dodgers by 13 runs over the course of a three-game sweep, but also the year prior, when the wild-card Padres stunned the 111-win Dodgers in the 2022 NLDS. Two years ago, a fearsome L.A. lineup cratered with runners in scoring position. Last year, the offense cratered in general, scoring just two runs in every game.

This year, Ohtani might have exorcised the offensive demons of postseasons past with one game-tying three-run swing.

"We don't expect anything less than that," Teoscar Hernández said. "He's the guy that's going to guide us through all this."

Ohtani had a .628 batting average with six homers, six doubles and 20 RBI over his last 10 games of the regular season. With runners in scoring position during that stretch, he was 12-for-14 with five homers. Entering the first playoff game of his career, he said he was not nervous. Playing in important games, being the person to deliver in the most important situations, this was his childhood dream.

There was no bigger situation in his big-league career than Saturday's second inning.

The second at-bat of Ohtani's postseason career began with the two-time — and likely soon-to-be three-time — MVP fouling a 2-0 pitch off his knee. With two on and two out, Ohtani composed himself.

All week, the Dodgers had stressed the importance of hitting the fastball, something they had failed to do each of the past two postseasons. Last year, the Dodgers hit .268 and slugged .480 against fastballs in the regular season. In the playoffs, those numbers dropped to .169 and .262, respectively, which ranked last and second to last among playoff clubs.

It was a similar story in the 2022 NLDS against the Padres. The Dodgers ranked in the top three in MLB in batting average and slugging against fastballs during the regular season. In the playoffs, they hit .192 and slugged .342 with a 27.7% whiff rate against the pitch, which ranked second worst among postseason clubs.

"Whether it's timing, the time off, I don't really know what the answer is in terms of the why," president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said.

They attempted to combat those issues during the five days off before the start of the NLDS this year, altering the structure of their practices and preparation. They favored a more gradual ramp-up in intensity rather than day after day of sim games, and they did more work with velocity machines.

On Saturday, it paid off.

"Three runs can kind of knock the air out of you," Freddie Freeman said. "But when you have Shohei Ohtani, that always helps. Just, when you need a big hit or a big situation comes up, we had the right guy at the plate."

After the painful foul ball, Ohtani turned on a 96.9 mph four-seamer from Dylan Cease at the top of the zone and laced a no-doubt shot 111.8 mph off the bat. He flung his bat emphatically to the side before letting out a scream on the game-tying blast. Ohtani beamed. The crowd erupted. The Dodgers' bullpen did, too.

"We were going nuts," said reliever Alex Vesia, one of five Dodgers relievers who held the Padres to two hits over six scoreless innings after an early departure from Yamamoto. "There was life."

Two years ago, Roberts lamented that his Dodgers team didn't seem to match the energy or the intensity of the Padres team in the other dugout. At least to begin the NLDS, that wasn't an issue.

"I think there's something to having that superstar player that can carry a ballclub," Roberts said.

The rest of the lineup seemed to feed off of Ohtani's pressure-relieving blast. In the third inning, the effort went further than anyone would have asked.

Freddie Freeman was iffy to play in Game 1 after injuring his ankle. He told his son Charlie when he left the house that he wasn't sure he would be able to go. He did some pregame work, got off the field and hit off the Trajekt velocity machine to see how he would handle something faster than typical batting practice. When he was hitting line drives off the machine, he felt like he was good enough to contribute.

He not only recorded two hits but also stole a base, making his manager hold his breath in the process.

"Ninety feet means a lot in this game, especially in postseason," Freeman said. "I know I took a big risk with how I'm feeling, but there's just an opportunity that presented itself, and I had to go for it. If I can't play the game the right way, I shouldn't be out there. I was feeling good enough, adrenaline took over. Adrenaline's worn off now."

The Dodgers didn't score that inning, but seeing Freeman's effort provided a boost, too.

"He could've waited a couple more days," shortstop Miguel Rojas, who's playing through a tear in his adductor, said. "The series, it's not like we're going home today. But you see the importance of a guy like Freddie being on the field, running all over the place and knowing what he had to go through, it pushed me to kind of forget about everything that is going with me because it's not even close to what he's going through."

When the Padres jumped ahead again by two runs, the Dodgers responded with three runs in the fourth — including a go-ahead hit by Hernández — and another in the fifth. The first three batters in their lineup reached base seven times. The bottom of the lineup carried its weight, too. Will Smith, Gavin Lux, Tommy Edman and Rojas combined to reach base seven times.

The offensive onslaught helped the Dodgers overcome a three-inning start from Yamamoto. Stunningly, that outing represented an improvement from the Dodgers' previous three postseason starts. In their past four postseason games dating back to last year, Dodgers starting pitchers have gone a combined 7.2 innings while allowing 18 runs on 21 hits and five walks with only three strikeouts.

They rebuilt their rotation in the winter to try to better withstand the rigors of a season, and it didn't matter. Tyler Glasnow won't be returning this year. Neither will Gavin Stone, nor Dustin May, River Ryan or Emmet Sheehan. On Saturday, more grim news came on the pitching front when Clayton Kershaw revealed that an MRI on his injured toe showed that he had made his injury worse. He won't be returning this year, either.

Considering the state of their rotation, it stands to reason the Dodgers will need to outhit and outslug their opponents to outlast them throughout October. It's a dangerous way to live, but it has to be the blueprint to success.

With Ohtani leading the offense, it feels like it just might work.

"I just really have never seen a guy in the biggest of moments come through as consistently as he has," Roberts said. "I don't know how he does it."

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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