Shohei Ohtani starts NLDS Game 1 for Dodgers vs. Phillies

LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani will make his Dodgers postseason pitching debut on Saturday, starting Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Phillies on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday night.

Game 1 of the NLDS will start at either 3:08 p.m. or 3:38 p.m. PT, depending on the outcome of the Red Sox vs. Yankees wild card Game 3 on Thursday. All-Star left-hander Cristopher Sánchez starts for the Phillies.

Ohtani has been fantastic on the mound this season, with a 2.87 ERA in 47 innings, with 62 strikeouts against only nine walks. He allowed one run in 19 2/3 innings over his final four starts of the regular season, including six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts in Arizona on September 23, his longest start to date with the Dodgers.

Ohtani pitched five hitless, scoreless innings against the Phillies on September 16 at Dodger Stadium, a game in which Sánchez allowed four runs early but nothing else in his seven innings. Both pitchers got no-decisions.

It’s hard to tell exactly whether starting pitching or offense is the Dodgers’ greatest strength, but Ohtani is instrumental to both. The bar was already set high by the rotation in the wild card series, with Blake Snelland Yoshinobu Yamamoto combining for 18 strikeouts and four runs (two earned runs) allowed in 13 2/3 innings in the first two games of the postseason.

In an exact opposite of last postseason, the Dodgers are teeming with starting pitching this October, including two starters who are slotted in relief in Emmet Sheehan — who had a rocky first go in Game 2 against the Reds, retiring only one of his five batters faced — and Clayton Kershaw, who will be back on the roster in the NLDS.

“The biggest downside of playing in a wild card series, obviously if you are able to advance, is what you’re pitching looks like after that. That’s the cost. And I think with our depth, that’s really mitigated,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Tuesday. “If we are fortunate to get out of this round, how many arms are used and when, but to have a Clayton Kershaw standing there ready, no matter how we deploy our pitching this week, just gets at the cost not being that great.”

It also helped that the Dodgers finished off the Reds in two games instead of three, and also didn’t even use starter Tyler Glasnow in the series.

“Getting through it the way we have, kind of seamlessly getting to the next series, I think we’re in a good spot,” Roberts said Wednesday night.

Starting Ohtani in Game 1 of the NLDS allows him to pitch the day before an off day, which means he won’t have to bat with the next-day fatigue after pitching. The same thing could happen should Dodgers vs. Phillies goes the distance, because Ohtani could conceivably start again in Game 5, on six days rest, thanks to the schedule having three off days during the series.

I’m sure the rotation possibilities will be discussed more in the coming days — like Blake Snell being able to start NLDS Game 2 next Monday on five days rest — but for now we know the Dodgers’ next starter is Ohtani. We can figure out the rest of the details later.