NLDS Preview: Can the Dodgers’ pitchers show up against the Phillies’ big hitters? | Dodgers Debate

NLDS Preview: Can the Dodgers’ pitchers show up against the Phillies’ big hitters? | Dodgers Debate

Oh wow. So saving him from game one of the wild card series wasn’t the worst play. No, look, they gambled and they won, right? I mean, you know, there no, at least in regards to this bet, there were no you pay Mizuharas here, you know. Hello and welcome back to Dodgers Debate. I’m Jack Harris, the LA Times Dodger Bwitriter along with our columnist Dylan Hernandez. We are in Philadelphia. Uh, if you can’t tell by the Philly fanatic behind us, Philly fanatic and Dodger fanatic. Whoa. Objective journalism here, Dylan. And whatever the opposite of negatively objective journalism is. What are you talking about? I How could I have been more positive about Roki Sasaki than I was a couple days ago? That’s true. You pick and choose your spots to uh to see the light. We we were going to shoot with the field behind us here at Citizens Bank Park, but uh the security told us off. I think we’re already getting a bad vibe for the city here. We’ve been here like 6 hours. You know, it’s shockingly the weather’s shockingly nice. It is. Right. It’s like the first like positive thing I’ve ever had to say about Philadelphia. Not Not the history, not the the history. Yeah. You know, the Rocky statue. I was not too long ago. I was down like at a year or two ago. was down at a park here somewhere and uh there was like a I feel like this is not going to be a compliment. No, the the museum of segregation or something. Great. It was closed. I didn’t get to see it, but like I was kind of like h I guess uh yeah, there’s Oh, I don’t think I don’t think they were I don’t think it’s there to celebrate it, right? All right. Well, this ballpark is going to be Wow, you really made me segue smoothly out of that. Uh this ballpark is going to be uh quite a scene tomorrow for game one of the National League Division Series. Uh probably the most marquee matchup of this round and MLB’s postseason between a Phillies team that is trying to get over a postseason hump, a Dodgers team that is trying to defend the World Series they won last year and getting over their own postseason hump. Two big offenses, two talented starting rotations. Phillies probably have an edge in the bullpen, but I don’t know like when you come into this, what what are you looking at as a key for the Dodgers? Uh the big question, I mean, I think honestly it might go back to like Roki Sasaki again and how they fit get this bullpen lined up against what’s going to be a much much tougher lineup than they saw in Cincinnati. Well, they’ve kind of lined this up to be the show Otani series, right? Obviously, he’s starting game one tomorrow. Uh you know, they right I think they they prefer that he not uh hit the days after he pitches. uh you know this whole thing the gamble that they took in the previous round uh is kind of paid off is gonna let you know Oh wow. So saving him from game one of the wild card series wasn’t the worst play. No look they gambled and they won right? I mean you know there no at least in regards to this bet. There were no e pay misuharas here you know. No, this is a this is a good bet, right? And they they’ve really kind of set the stage for him to to do something big, right? And I think uh yeah, he’s going to probably have to be the difference maker here because like you said, that’s a really good team on the other side, right? And you know, I think uh you got two very good lineups, two good rotations, and kind of the bulletp what’s obviously going to happen there. How much with Otani do you trust, which I think it’s pretty high given your argument last week, but like you know Dave Roberts said today the restrictions are off. He could go six innings. He could go seven. I suppose the door could be open for more if he’s super pitch efficient. Although his season high is still only 91. I think there’s going to be an adrenaline component. Like he talked today about Yeah. You know, I’m the type of pitcher that in big moments usually my fastball VO goes up and I got to try to stay composed and balanced and within my delivery. I mean, how do you like because this is going to be a very different thing than he’s ever pitched in before. And we’ve talked about this in the past that as a hitter and a pitcher, you know, there’s a different persona. I thought it was interesting today He acknowledged that, yeah, I might be a little nervous, which is like in total contrast to last year when he shut down the nervous question about playing in the postseason for the first time. So, did you trust that he can give this team the six or seven innings that are going to be required to help cover for the bullpen to help set this series with the right tone and to be able to do that again against the Phillies lineup that especially with the left-handed slugging threats they have and Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper I think poses a very interesting and difficult test for him. Yeah. And not only that, right, and they still need him to hit too. I mean, right. Like that’s only half the forget. They they they don’t have a choice. they I think they need him to do that, right? And if and if he doesn’t deliver those types of performances, uh I’m not sure they get by here. So, you know, you you know, you get to a certain stage of a season and sometimes you just kind of have to bet on your guy, right? And you know, obviously with this organization, they kind of have the history of asking Kershaw to go on short rest and those things didn’t work out. But you know what? In those situations, like looking back on that thing, and I’m sure you Clayton would say the same thing, you know, were those mistakes like no. Like that that was like the thing to do at the time and you put your best foot forward and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Uh but it’s he’s going to have to do it. Like that’s you know, um and you know, the one thing today and I’m not really sure like how this kind of comes across, right, through like an interpreter and stuff, but when you just kind of looked at the control he had today, right? Um he was sitting like this at the desk like the whole time. Yeah. Not even kind of not even Right. Exactly. He wasn’t like moving. Right. And even like when he talked about being nervous, it was almost like, okay, it’s going to sound weird if I don’t, you know, it’s like he was almost trying to like humanize himself, but like in while humanizing himself, he kind of sounded a robot, right? Yeah. Like he kind of sounded like this like baseball cyborg almost as he was trying to like convince us he’s normal. With him, the adrenaline just doesn’t have like a negative effect. If anything, it just kind of enhances performance. Um, so yeah, I’m expecting him to at least like come out and, you know, uh, not, you know, like completely implode in in the first inning. I think I would agree with that. To me, this series is kind of dependent on this first game because I think the Dodgers I mean, well, obviously they’re going to have to steal a game here. and you look at the way the rest of the series is lined up, you’re going to be asking Blake Snell for a second big start, which again is is possible, but like the Phillies, like their rotation can match up a little bit better with the depth that like a team like Cincinnati didn’t have. When you go home, it’s going to be Yamamoto. You feel good about that. It’s going to be Tyler Glasnau, which is still probably more of a wild card. and and and this series in particular, you know, getting getting two really good starts out of Snell and Yamamoto in a wild card was easier to expect, especially against that lineup. Whereas in this kind of series, there’s going to be games that come down to the bullpen having to pitch probably three or four innings. And I still have a lot of questions. Now, they are going to change the look of the bullpen. uh Clayton Kershaw will be part of the group, which I think is is probably the right move considering just how um rattled and uh non-confident, for lack of a better term, a lot of their relievers looked in those first two games of the postseason. Um, but winning an Otani start again because of the stuff he brings, the magnitude of the moment, and it kind of set a tone like when you look at the three games that the the Dodgers are going to get here, like this is probably the one you feel best about. The Phillies are coming off the by-week, which we’ve talked about in years past how tough that can be. And if you don’t get this one, you know, it’s going to put them in a different kind of it’s going to put them under a different kind of pressure against a really good team that that that’s going to be difficult, I think, to bounce back from, especially when you have to play this series on the road. So, yeah, and you know, when you talk about those Yamamoto snail starts, and this could even happen tomorrow, frankly, with the red or with glass now, too. Um, you know, that situation in the top of the six against the Reds in game two where it’s bases loaded, no outs. Roberts is sticking with Yamamoto because you’re right, he might not say it like this, but he doesn’t trust the bullpen, which he shouldn’t. Uh, doing that against this lineup is a little bit different, I think, than, you know, doing that against the Red’s lineup, which not to talk take anything away from Yamamoto, but sometimes those guys got themselves out, right? I thought you were going to say not to take anything away from the Reds. I’m like, you know, take a lot away. I think there’s going to be kind of that, you know, I’ve been I think we’ve been saying this for a while, right? that you know you feel like Roberts is almost kind of being set up for a Grady Little moment here where he might leave a guy hitting a little too long. I know but Grady Little had other option. I don’t like this analogy that you guys keep going to. That was obviously wrong. If Dave Roberts Dave Roberts’s mistake in the postseason this year is going to be if he pulls a guy too early to throw out one of these untrustworthy relievers. Don’t don’t call him Grady Little and try to be like, “Oh, don’t go too far Dave like you you got these great arms of the Bullpin. you know, he’s got he’s he’s he’s got to do what what he did in that game, right? I mean, kind of comes down to like kind of trusting certain people. I mean, maybe, you know, I again, I don’t know what Kershaw is going to be comfortable doing, but like at least as a guy, you kind of trust him that he’s not going to beat himself, right? Um you can hand him an eight-run lead in the eighth inning and feel confident that the game’s not going to go sideways on the other guy who spoke today, right, Aroki Sasaki. Um it’s interesting, right? I mean, he hasn’t obviously just because he spent most of the year injured. We didn’t get to know him a ton. Uh, I was kind of surprised by just I guess like the confidence he kind of projected, you know, when he kind of was talking about reflecting on his season. Um, you know, and again, I think a couple things might have gotten lost in translation a little bit, but like one thing, you know, he kind of talked about, yes, you know, because, you know, right, what was it new, you know, what was it like coming to like a new league in a new country? and he’s like, “Yeah, the schedule’s different. You know, the travel’s different, but from a competition standpoint,” he said, “You know, I don’t really feel like I I got to to experience that at all because I just wasn’t in a position to to pitch as well as I I I can.” Right. And they didn’t get to see me, right? Yeah. Right. That was the that that was how I read that, right? That was the implication. It’s like, well, when I’m fine, obviously I’m awesome. You guys saw it the other night. Uh and you know I think kind of going forward uh that’s kind of like a promising thing because I don’t think you know you you kind of hear like different things right and you kind of try to read in you know at this point it’s almost like reading teles where you try to read into the guy’s body language and stuff and okay how resilient is he this and that this is you know this guy’s a very he’s got like a very strong sense of self I think right and so I think that’s kind of promising for future seasons now as far as him as a closer though um one thing that he did kind of mention on the, you know, and I think he he touched on this a little today, but he he mentioned it to Kirstston Watson on scores in LA after the game that because he had a four-run lead, he was able to just kind of let it go without worrying about giving up a home run, you know? And this is the thing though, that’s what made him so good, right, was here’s the ball, confidence, the lack of fear. I have two pitches. I have two pitches. You can you’re going to have a 50% rate of getting it right, but I’m going to throw the crap out of them and hit it if you can, basically. And you know, you kind of don’t want and look, this is a scary lineup, right? I could see, you know, we we talk about like kind of nightmare moment. I mean, this used to be a house of horrors here, Jack, when you were like in elementary school probably. But like, you know, uh obviously, you know, the last time I was here, I I was calling Tom Neen Furer, uh, you know, who had kind of backto-back postseason, you know, bad late inning moments. And it was because Jonathan Broxson has had had his kind of second consecutive meltdown here, you know. Uh that’s what I associate this ballpark with, right? And so now it’s going to be Sasaki and, you know, out there probably, you know, going through the meat of that lineup at some point, you know, with guys like Harbor, with guys like Schwarber, you know, and when I think about that Matt Stairs home run at the first one at Dodger Stadium, it was just kind of the sound, right? You had this guy in Broxen who threw a 100 and just like the sound and just kind of the silence kind of, right, that kind of came over and the elements are here for that, right? Right. I mean, Sasaki throws really hard, you know, uh those guys. It’s still I know his arm slots a little different, the characteristics on on the fast ball, but it’s still not a fast ball like it’s a it’s a as hitable of a 100 mile per hour fast ball as you can throw, you know, at that velocity in terms of the shape and the characteristics of it. Now, the thing is, right, and what’s what’s been great, I think probably since he was down in the miners, is just like the location, though, right? Right. And this is what made him so hard in to hit in Japan is that yeah, that thing doesn’t move a ton, but he’s like the bottom of the zone and then can play the splitter off. He’s hitting the edges of the zone, right? It’s not quite Yamamoto position, but it’s pretty close. And that’s what made this guy so good, you know? So, it’s going to be kind of interesting, right? Again, to see like this guy kind of going up against maybe guys like that potentially late in the game, potentially with like a one-run lead. Uh, it’s going to be I think it’s going to be great theater. I’m just glad that you tried to start this episode by saying, “No, I’m not negative. I wrote so positively about Roki Sasaki and now we’re ending it with oh well remember Jonathan Brock then in ’08 but these these these things like I I you know fans that are you know I saw some fans you know on the plane coming in um right some older fans that I’m sure again saw that happen right and you know um these things do kind of affect like the atmospheres at ballparks and stuff you know I think at Dodger Stadium you’re going to have a lot of people that kind of remember that and you can kind of you know I mean it’s not as bad as obviously like Petco right where they’re just like used to losing all the time. As soon as something bad happens, there’s like an immediate shift in the stance. It’s not quite like that because you, you know, Dodger Stadium’s a little more maybe multigenerational or different generations experience different things. But yeah, but that’s some but this is kind of this is kind of part of the Yeah, this is part of the drama, right? Is can he do this thing that maybe some other right accomplished pitchers in the past failed in? Uh I think and look like he looked the other night to me he looked like special, right? This is not a even somebody like me who honestly you thought that I couldn’t tell by reading your column when you compared him to who Messi Allen Iverson and Reggie Bush you know cuz look even somebody I think that like doesn’t really like baseball right watches kind of the you know it’s the high leg kick it was kind of like the explosive like push off right it’s like we talked about the beginning of the year it was shotgun Roki was back just like this time he was with like the precision of like a rifle yeah you know And this the thing, right, is that like he is going to kind of draw like eyeballs regardless. I mean, and um this is kind of what makes it this fun, right? I I’m looking forward to this. I rarely look forward to to baseball to baseball, but I want to see if he can do this, right? And maybe he can, right? We’ve seen, you know, we’ve seen so many athletes kind of come through the city over the years, right? So many great athletes, and some of them have succeeded. Um, you know, most probably don’t reach the heights that they want to reach, right? Kawhi Leonard’s probably, you know, he’s reaching the financial heights. He isach. Well, I mean, I don’t think he got he didn’t get all that money, right? I mean, he’s probably sitting around thinking like, what, you know, this isn’t how I pictured this happening. I mean, it could go both ways. And I think, uh, you know, with Otani last year, it kind of worked out. He came here, uh, you know, it worked out for him. He won his he won his World Series. And I think we’re, you know, kind of seeing the start of potentially something special in Sasaki or not. Well, you know who’s going to get in his head? It’s going to be that guy. I will bet you so much money that at some point he’s going up to Roki Sasaki and trying to do whatever. And and that’s test number one right there. If you can survive the fanatic, then then it’s only the other 45,000 people here. You got to, you know, I mean, whenever I see that, I always think of Tommy. Yeah. It’s that’s an iconic element. And Dave Roberts did try to go after Shield. Maybe he’ll he’ll uh maybe he’ll just assault the fanatic. Really, you’re really drawing two strings pretty far together there. All right. Well, uh, game one will be tomorrow. We will be here. We have pregame, uh, coverage on limes.com. And there’s nowhere else to be in this city. This place sucks. What is Why Why every time the Dodgers play a playoff series must you attack the city that you go to? This one This one really does suck. Is it’s worse than St. Louis and Milwaukee? M. Oh, do not say yes. No, it’s not worse than St. Louis. St. Louis is like up there, right? In Milwaukee. The terms are like bad. This is worse than Milwaukee. Yeah, Milwaukey’s got some spots. You just got nowhere to go. No, evidently you don’t. Wool skis in Milwaukee does not fix everything. I tried. It wasn’t great. Well, hey, maybe we’ll get the Philly Milwaukee uh uh double play here. Oh, boy. Oh, this could be a rough uh Yeah. Yeah, this could be a rough post. going to lose health for you. Well, I thought it was I thought it was bad being at home dealing with my kids, but this is this is going to be so much worse. All right. Well, we’re going to start finding out tomorrow night game one of the NLDS. Dodgers Phillies will be here and we’ll be back postgame for another episode of Dodgers Debate. Till then, thanks for watching.

The Los Angeles Dodgers meet the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS in what might be the best series this MLB postseason. Los Angeles Times Dodger beat writer Jack Harris and columnist Dylan’s Hernandez look at the Dodgers’ pitching woes and how their plans stack up against a hot Phillies team.

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