The Los Angeles Dodgers are changing their rotation by swapping Jack Flaherty and rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres.
Yamamoto will pitch in Game 1 on Saturday, while Flaherty will take the mound in Game 2 on Sunday at Dodger Stadium. This adjustment allows Yamamoto to be available for a possible Game 5 with an extra day of rest, which he has had for each of his outings this season.
“It’s just about having more options,” Andrew Friedman, the president of baseball operations, said Thursday. “It just creates flexibility for things that we can’t possibly know right now, which is how is our pitching used in Games 1 through 4 and just having as many options as we can.”
He mentioned that both pitchers were understanding about the decision once they heard the reasoning behind it.
This NLDS matchup features the Dodgers facing the Padres for the third time in five years. The Padres won 3-1 in 2022, while the Dodgers won 3-0 in 2020 on their way to the World Series title during the shortened pandemic season.
“It’s felt like it’s been on a collision course,” Friedman said. “They’re a good team. We know it’ll be really good baseball.”
Friedman compared the matchup to a game of chess since both teams know each other very well. The Padres had an 8-5 record against the Dodgers in the regular season, with the NL West title decided in the final games.
“Do you keep sticking to the strengths? Do you switch things up? How are they going to approach it?” he said. “If you’ve done something specific to a certain guy through those regular-season matchups, do you stick with it? Do you deviate? I think that’s on a case-by-case basis.”
Having the best record in baseball allowed the Dodgers to take a break this week.
On Thursday, they used a high-velocity pitching machine for batting practice, worked on fundamentals, and played a simulated game while watching the deciding Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series between the Mets and Brewers on the stadium’s videoboards.
