Dodgers: Potential tandem starter pairs to watch out for this October

Pitchers to Use Against Lefty Lineups (but do those even exist?)

Now for lefty-heavy lineups. Amongst current playoff teams, there really are no lefty-heavy lineups. The Dodgers have the most lefty-heavy lineup of all of the contenders in the National League playoffs.

That makes for it being difficult to write about what options to use against lefties.

So instead, I’ll just show more reasons why Gonslin/Maeda/Stripling to Ferguson/Urias to Gonsolin/Maeda/Stripling should work so well against teams the Nationals, since I went into the Braves already.

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Let’s start with the Nationals. They have lefties Adam Eaton and Juan Soto, but the meat of their lineup, Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon, Howie Kendrick (oh boy), and Victor Robles is right-handed.

Statistically, Maeda makes the most sense to counter them. In 2019, he has 21 ABs against the Nationals, in which he shut them out and allowed just one hit, and he has strikeouts of Rendon, Kendrick, and Robles. Gonsolin hasn’t faced the Nationals, and it may not be the best idea to let him face Juan Soto in the first inning of potentially Gonsolin’s first playoff appearance. Soto hits .293 and has 28 home runs against righties while he has a .295 AVG with 6 home runs against lefties.

After Maeda gets through the top of the order, hopefully avoiding Soto’s barrel, he should have the ability to get through the rest of a lineup that has not proved especially deep this season. The next go around for the top of the order should bring out Urias or Ferguson, before heading back to Gonsolin or Stripling.

Urias and Ferguson both have faced the Nationals this season, but the most important matchups would be their battles with Soto and Rendon. For Ferguson, he’s faced Rendon and Soto one time each, walking Rendon and retiring Soto. That’s too small a sample size to trust in the playoffs with any degree of certainty, plus he is a little too homer prone for the top of a powerful order.

Urias, who has a .267 average against in 2019 against the Nationals, has the stuff to miss bats, something that is tough to do to Soto and Rendon, but that will be made easier when all they have faced so far is Gonsolin or Maeda.