On the TV screens inside the Dodgers’ home clubhouse Thursday, two slides clicked back and forth.
The first showed the team’s schedule for an off-day workout, on the eve of a decisive Game 5 in the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres.
The other displayed a three-word quote for the team to take into Friday’s winner-take-all contest:
“Job’s not finished”
— Kobe Bryant
Indeed, that was the Dodgers’ mindset coming off a season-saving Game 4 win in San Diego on Wednesday, one that staved off a third straight NLDS elimination and set up Friday’s showdown at Dodger Stadium.
“The moment is important,” manager Dave Roberts said.
“Yesterday was definitely a team win,” star slugger Shohei Ohtani added, through interpreter Will Ireton. “So we’re going to have the same kind of attitude going into the game tomorrow.”
With first pitch scheduled for 5:08 p.m. Friday night, here are five things to watch for in Game 5.
Yamamoto’s first inning (or three)
Late Thursday night, the Dodgers announced that Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start Game 5 Friday.
Now all eyes will turn to what he does in the first inning.
Despite having a 7-2 record and 3.00 ERA overall in 18 starts as an MLB rookie this year, Yamamoto often struggled early in games. In all of his first innings combined, he posted a 6.00 ERA with a .296 batting average against. In innings 1-3, his ERA was 4.76. From the fourth inning on, it dropped to a minuscule 0.69.
The Padres were a main contributor to those poor early marks, jumping Yamamoto for five runs in the first inning of his big-league debut, after he signed a 12-year, $325 million to come over from Japan this offseason.
In Game 1 of the NLDS, the Padres ambushed Yamamoto quickly again, scoring three times in the first inning of a five-run, three-inning outing.
In both those starts, the Dodgers believed Yamamoto might have been tipping pitches with runners on base. But this past week, Roberts said the team “cleaned stuff up.”
“Overall, kind of where Yoshinobu is at,” Roberts said, “I feel really comfortable.”
That doesn’t mean Roberts will extend his leash on the 26-year-old right-hander, knowing he has a deep staff of leverage relievers in his back pocket. It’s possible Yamamoto is only tasked with a handful of innings.
But in any case, Yamamoto’s job will be to shake off his early-game struggles and set an opening tone — one that could give the Dodgers a chance to build a quick lead.
Darvish vs. the Dodgers
Except for the three months he actually played for the team in 2017, Yu Darvish, the Padres’ starter for Game 5, has spent most of his major league career tormenting the Dodgers.
In 15 regular-season starts against them, Darvish has a 2.27 ERA (his second lowest against any team, behind only Philadelphia) and 104 strikeouts in 91⅓ innings. He’s won both of his postseason meetings with the Dodgers, including his seven-inning, one-run gem in Game 2 last weekend.
Though the 38-year-old no longer has the most overpowering stuff, his reputation for being a “crafty” pitcher, as Ohtani put it Thursday, still holds up.
In Game 2, Darvish registered only three strikeouts but limited the Dodgers to three hits with his eight-pitch mix.
Read more: Yoshinobu Yamamoto to start winner-take-all NLDS Game 5 for Dodgers
“Just being ready to hit,” Roberts said of how the Dodgers can adjust in Game 5. “He doesn’t give in, but when he throws his slider, curveball in the strike zone, or makes a mistake with the fastball, we’ve got to be ready to hit it. I do feel if we can put pressure on him early, that puts us in a good position.”
One notable blemish on Darvish’s résumé: His 0-2 record in winner-take-all postseason games.
In his 2012 rookie season, Darvish was the losing pitcher in the American League wild-card game with the Texas Rangers, despite giving up only three runs (two earned) in 6⅔ innings. And then, of course, there was his infamous Game 7 start for the Dodgers in the 2017 World Series, when he was rocked for five runs (four earned) in less than two innings by the Houston Astros.
Does that memory still haunt Darvish?
“Obviously, I remember about that time,” he said Thursday. “But it’s like, how many years ago was that? So … I don’t go focus on that time, basically. Plus, I am wearing a different uniform right now.”
Darvish vs. Ohtani
In the Dodgers’ two wins in this series, Ohtani has gone three for eight with four RBIs and a home run and reached base safely in five of 10 plate appearances.
In the Dodgers’ two losses, the slugger is one for eight with four strikeouts and no runs batted in.
It’s become one of the biggest factors in this series, as the Padres seemingly have tinkered with their game plan for the soon-to-be three-time most valuable player.
Compared to the regular season, the Padres have attacked Ohtani with more fastballs this series, throwing him four-seamers or sinkers 49% of the time in the NLDS compared to 37% previously (perhaps a wise choice given Ohtani’s major league-leading .719 slugging percentage against pitches other than fastballs this season).
Read more: Hernández: Don’t overthink it, Dodgers. Game 5 should be another bullpen game
However, Darvish handled Ohtani in Game 2 with almost exclusively offspeed and breaking pitches, throwing just a single fastball in three at-bats against him. Including that game, Ohtani is just one for eight against Darvish in his career.
“He doesn’t rely on one plan,” Ohtani said through Ireton. “So in that sense, for us as hitters, we have to be able to adjust.”
Bottom of the lineup
One other factor in Ohtani’s success this week: whether or not runners have gotten on base in front of him.
When batting with someone on base, Ohtani is four for six. When the bags are empty, he’s hitless in 10 at-bats.
“When there’s runners on base,” he said, “obviously there’s going to be more pressure on the pitcher.”
That’s why the bottom of the Dodgers’ batting order has taken on significant importance to the team’s offensive success. In the team’s two wins, the Nos. 5-9 hitters were a combined 11 for 39. In the two losses, they were five for 33.
Of that group, second baseman Gavin Lux is having the best series, batting .333 (five for 15) with a walk, a home run and three RBIs. Switch-hitter Tommy Edman continues to struggle from the left side but has managed four hits in 14 at-bats. Kiké Hernández also provided a spark in Game 4 after being inserted into the starting lineup for the first time in the series, collecting two hits.
Who’s in center field?
Exactly who will round out the batting order remains a question.
While first baseman Freddie Freeman is expected to play, Roberts said shortstop Miguel Rojas is doubtful. That means Edman likely will shift from the outfield to shortstop, and Roberts will have to decide who to start in center field instead.
The three options are Hernández, Chris Taylor and Andy Pages.
Read more: Shaikin: Dodgers want fans fired up for Game 5. ‘Bring the energy, but be smart about it’
Pages, a 23-year-old rookie, had the best season of that group, batting .248 with 13 home runs and 46 RBIs. But Hernández (.229 average, 12 homers, 42 RBIs) and Taylor (.202, four homers, 23 RBIs) have more experience and more extensive postseason track records.
Hernández, whom the Dodgers re-signed this spring in part because of his October reputation, has been particularly good in recent postseasons, batting a whopping .397 (25 for 63) since the start of the 2021 playoffs.
Roberts, who didn’t reveal whom he was leaning toward starting, said numbers like that would factor into the decision.
“Kiké has shown that he gets up for the postseasons,” Roberts said. “The sample over the course of a season is certainly something. But the sample doesn’t equate to any type of success, in my opinion, in one postseason moment. It’s kind of the person, that particular moment, and you’ve got to make a bet.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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