LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts has found a way around the Los Angeles Dodgers’ struggling relievers. Barely use ‘em.
The defending World Series champions have relied on their starting pitching to take a commanding 2-0 lead against the Milwaukee Brewers in their best-of-seven NL Championship Series.
Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell tossed eight scoreless innings to go with 10 strikeouts before rookie Roki Sasaki and Blake Treinen tamped down a late Brewers rally in closing out Game 1.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto tossed a three-hitter in the first postseason complete game by a Dodgers pitcher since Jose Lima threw a five-hit shutout in the 2004 NL Division Series against St. Louis in Game 2.
“I’ll take as many as we can get,” Roberts said, laughing when asked how many complete games his staff can deliver. “They’re doing their part by attacking, being efficient and putting themselves in a position to do that.”
Snell and Yamamoto combined to allow one run on four hits over 17 of 18 innings in Milwaukee.
Now, here come Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani.
Glasnow starts Game 3 at Dodger Stadium. Ohtani is set to go in Game 4.
The Dodgers’ rotation struggled earlier in the season with injuries and slumps, but it’s clicking now.
“It’s perfect timing,” Glasnow said. “The vibe is really good in the clubhouse. Everyone is feeling great. It’s just a good time to get hot, for sure.”
Glasnow allowed two hits over six scoreless innings in Game 4 of the NLDS against Philadelphia, when the Dodgers finished off the best-of-five series.
The Dodgers have carefully managed Ohtani’s innings this season — his first pitching since he had a second elbow surgery in December 2023 when he was with the Los Angeles Angels. The right-hander twice pitched into the seventh in the regular season.
“The century mark isn’t like a ceiling on pitches. Yeah, I think it’s just kind of contingent on how he’s throwing,” Roberts said. “He’s waited for this moment, and I think with the rest that he’s got going into that game, he’s going to be ready to go.”
Ohtani was impressed with Snell and Yamamoto pitching deep into their starts and he’s eager to do the same.
“That would be great,” he said through a translator. “But my number one priority is making sure I’m putting up zeros no matter what and making sure we’re the team that scores first.”
The Brewers have lost their last nine road playoff games since 2018, and will need to win at least two of the next three games in Los Angeles to force the series back to Wisconsin. They swept a three-game series at Dodger Stadium in July.
Milwaukee had not yet announced its Game 3 starter. Manager Pat Murphy said the pitching plans were “under construction.” Left-hander José Quintana expects to see action, whether he starts or an opener is used ahead of him.
“I think we pitched better than we played, our defense,” Quintana said. “We stay positive for the game tomorrow. We need to show really good baseball and win one ballgame at a time. Tomorrow we expect to get the first win.”
Jumpstarting Ohtani
A relatively quiet Dodger Stadium got jolted with a blast of Ohtani’s walk-up song, “Feeling Good.”
The three-time MVP walked to the batting cage as Clayton Kershaw and other teammates hooted and hollered at him. Ohtani went through five rounds of hitting in an attempt to regain his stroke amidst a postseason offensive skid. He hit the metal roof of the right-field pavilion on one left-handed cut.
The two-way superstar is 2 for 25 with no extra-base hits in the NL Division Series and NLCS. He hit a career-high 55 home runs during the regular season.
Still, the Dodgers have won seven of eight postseason games with Ohtani contributing very little offensively.
“The contribution is not just by batting average,” Roberts said. “Certainly him being in the lineup, posting, I think getting the walks, allowing for Mookie (Betts) to have opportunities to drive runs in, that’s contribution. The first two games in Milwaukee his at-bats have been fantastic. That’s what I’ve been looking for. That’s what I’m counting on.”
Murphy dismissed any suggestion that Ohtani is struggling at the plate.
“He’s dangerous,” he said, “and we pitch him as tough and as careful as we can pitch him, and we bring a matchup in anytime we can.”
Murphy’s Dodger connection
Murphy brought along his 10-year-old son, Austin, when he spoke to the media.
He said the boy’s middle name, Lynn, is a tribute to Bob Welch, the retired Dodgers pitcher born Robert Lynn Welch who was a friend of Murphy’s until his death in 2014 at age 57.
Austin sat quietly and yawned once until he was asked what the Brewers need to do to get back in the series. “Just stick with it and keep battling through it,” he said, sounding a lot like his dad.
The kid was just getting warmed up.
Leaning into the microphone like an old pro, he said, “The guys respond back really good. Started the season 0-4. Those games were not good. But then they responded with the best record in baseball, so I believe they can do it.”
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