Dave Roberts reveals tentative Dodgers NLDS starting rotation

In their series and season finale against the Rockies on Sunday, the Dodgers opted for a bullpen game. Anthony Banda got the ball to start, then Landon Knack came in for a bulk relief outing lasting four innings before the bullpen took over from there. It was LA's third bullpen game over their last week; they've been working with a four-man rotation since they optioned Bobby Miller back to the minors.

The postseason rotation will only carry four pitchers, so the Dodgers shouldn't have any tough decisions to make about who to cut. We already who they'll be working with — Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler, and Landon Knack — but when the NLDS starts on Saturday, it'll be a question of who will get the Dodgers off on the right foot.

There's almost no way that they would go to Buehler or Knack, so that leaves Yamamoto and Flaherty. Yamamoto might've been the easy choice if he hadn't missed months with a triceps issue, but the Dodgers just stretched him to five innings, his longest outing since coming off the IL, on Sept. 28.

So it looks like the Dodgers are going with Flaherty. Dave Roberts said that the rotation hadn't been finalized quite yet, but "his guess right now is that Flaherty would likely get Game 1."

Jack Flaherty named Dodgers' tentative NLDS Game 1 starter

If Flaherty makes the first start, then the rest of the postseason rotation falls into place easily: Yamamoto, Buehler, Knack.

Flaherty over Yamamoto for Game 1 makes sense; the Dodgers will need some length in the opener and still need to be careful with Yamamoto so fresh off of injury. Getting him to five innings during his last regular season start was a good sign, but if they decide he can't go past five, he'd be better suited for Game 2.

The Dodgers managed to get through the season with the best record in baseball — a feat, given how many injuries they've sustained — but this rotation still isn't ideal. Tyler Glasnow out, Clayton Kershaw out, and Gavin Stone out definitely isn't how the Dodgers wanted to go into October.

Flaherty has also looked shaky over his last three starts, having pitched 14 innings and given up 10 runs. But now's the time for him to tap back into whatever magic he managed to regain this season. If the DS goes to five games, the Dodgers' lives might literally depend on it.