LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers are flipping Jack Flaherty and rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto in their rotation for the National League Division Series against the rival San Diego Padres. Yamamoto will start Game 1 on Saturday and Flaherty will go in Game 2 on Sunday at Dodger Stadium. The changes were made so Yamamoto can be available for a potential Game 5 on an extra day of rest as he’s had for every outing this season.
“It's just about having more options,” Andrew Friedman, 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 said both pitchers were great about the decision once the logic was explained.
The NLDS pits the Dodgers against the Padres for the third time in five years. The Padres won 3-1 in 2022, and the Dodgers won 3-0 in 2020 on their way to winning the World Series in the pandemic-shortened 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 likens the matchup to a game of chess since the division rivals know each other so well.
The Padres were 8-5 against the Dodgers in the regular season, with the NL West title going down to the wire. “Do you keep sticking to the strengths? Do you switch things up? How are they going to approach it?” he said. “If you'v.
