The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays will face each other in the ultimate winner-take-all matchup, Game Seven of the World Series. It’s all hands on deck for both pitching staffs with nine innings separating them from a championship.
Two future Hall of Famers will take the mound tonight as the starting pitchers. In fact, they’ll directly face each other in the first plate appearance of the game. Shohei Ohtani will lead off as the designated hitter, then take the mound in the bottom of the first inning. His opponent will be 41-year-old Max Scherzer.
Ohtani is widely expected to win his fourth MVP Award this year, and was named the National League Championship Series MVP. Scherzer’s trophy case is almost as full, as he owns three Cy Young Awards.
There has never been a player like Ohtani in baseball history, but he’s going to be out of his comfort zone by pitching tonight. He typically requires at least five or six days of rest between outings, and has only pitched on fewer than five days’ rest once in his career. He’ll go on just three days’ rest in Game Seven, having thrown six innings and 93 pitches in Game Four on October 28.
It’s unreasonable to expect Ohtani to go more than a few innings. Dodgers manger Dave Roberts will probably let him pitch for as long as he can shut down the Toronto lineup, but he’ll undoubtedly have a short hook. That will put the Dodgers at a disadvantage, since this is essentially a bullpen game—Ohtani must start because he can’t come in as a reliever without sacrificing the designated hitter spot.
After Ohtani, it gets dicey for the Dodgers. Roki Sasaki has emerged as a multi-inning closer in the postseason. He’ll probably pitch tonight even though he threw 33 pitches yesterday. Tyler Glasnow is another starting pitcher who looked like he would throw multiple innings in Game Seven until he was needed to throw three pitches in Game Six.
Blake Snell hasn’t made a relief appearance since the 2019 postseason, but he could be available on two days’ rest. Yoshinobu Yamamoto just threw six innings and 96 pitches yesterday, making him the least available pitcher for the Dodgers, though nothing is impossible in the final game of the year.
All of the conventional relievers are available, and the only one who pitched in game six is Justin Wrobleski. However, Dodgers fans who watched their bullpen all year won’t find much comfort in the idea of relying on a bullpen game.
The Blue Jays are more set up for pitching success, even though Scherzer isn’t what he used to be, having posted a 5.19 ERA in the regular season. Kevin Gausman was yesterday’s starter, so it’s unlikely they’ll use him tonight. Four Toronto relievers also worked in Game Six—Chris Bassitt, Seranthony Domínguez, Mason Fluharty, and Louis Varland—but that won’t preclude any of them from working in Game Seven.
To summarize the pitching staffs, the Dodgers have a better starter on the mound, but he’s unlikely to last deep into the night, and they have a weaker bullpen. If they don’t have a commanding lead after the early innings, the odds shift in favor of the Blue Jays to win Game Seven and the World Series.