Dodgers: 3 reasons starting Max Scherzer in possible NLWC Game is easiest decision ever

2. Dodgers’ staff to begin the NLDS will be … really good

The Los Angeles Dodgers have the best pitching staff in baseball, leading the league with a collective 2.94 ERA. The starters are even better with a 2.81 ERA, and Scherzer’s helped massively with that sterling number. But he’s also been alongside some good company.

Julio Urias leads the NL in wins (18). Walker Buehler is top-five in ERA, wins, WHIP, and innings pitched. Clayton Kershaw has returned from his injury just in time to gear up for the postseason. The Dodgers can easily cruise through an NLDS if Scherzer has to get pushed back because of his Wild Card Game outing.

But even so, the rest of the rotation’s current situation proves Scherzer needs to be starting the one-game playoff of that’s what it comes to.

The Dodgers could slot Urias, Buehler, or Kershaw and get a quality start, but there are more risks. Urias has already blew by career highs in starts (29) and innings pitched (168). In his last start, the Dodgers limited Urias to just five innings in order to keep him fresh for the playoffs. Similary, Buehler similarly will have made the most starts and pitch the most innings in his career when the season is done. Why put overworked guys in a do-or-die situation if you don’t have to?

Kershaw just returned from the IL and needs to be built back up. Scherzer’s durability and experience as an ace for the better part of the last decade is enough to end this “debate.”