The Dodgers are making starting pitchers the main characters of the MLB playoffs again

The Los Angeles Dodgers -- sorry, the defending World Series champion Dodgers -- are up 2-0 in the best-of-seven NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers, who had the best record in baseball in the regular season. They are 7-1 in the playoffs this season, including 4-0 on the road against teams that finished with a better regular-season record.

How are the Dodgers doing it? Look no further than the NLCS Game 2 hero. It might take a bit of an adjustment after these last several years, but the Dodgers are putting the focus back on the starting pitcher. In Game 2, the Dodgers' starter finished it. It was Yoshinobu Yamamoto starring for the Dodgers with MLB's first complete game in the playoffs since 2017. In Game 1 against the Brewers, it was Blake Snell shining for eight innings.

The 2025 Dodgers are bringing back the Main Character Starting Pitcher. 

Game planning can be cyclical in sports. Often, the teams ahead of the proverbial curve are the ones who have the most success. The Dodgers have been one of the teams at the forefront of changes for years and it appears to be happening again. 

Last year, we saw them win the World Series with a rotation that featured Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler and a bullpen game. They didn't usually take starters deep into games and pieced things together with a bevy of relievers, while also relying on good offense. 

This time around, the Dodgers are rendering their bullpen meaningless by having morphed their rotation into a stable of workhorses.

I pointed out heading to the NLDS that the Dodgers were going to do this to guard against a leaky bullpen. Their starters are absolutely stacking up innings pitched, even more so than I expected. All the while, they are holding opposing offenses in check. That is to say, they aren't just racking up innings. They are doing so while dominating. 

Snell, notorious for not being able to get deep into games in his career due to erratic control and high pitch counts, has gone 21 innings in three starts with a 0.86 ERA. He has established a new career high in innings during a playoff start in two of his three outings. The eight innings he threw in Game 1 were the second-highest of his career including the regular season. 

Yamamoto has now gone 19 ⅔ innings in three starts after throwing the first complete game in the playoffs since Justin Verlander did so in 2017 (also: Kudos to my colleague Mike Axisa for correctly predicting we'd see a complete game). It was the first Dodgers' playoff complete game since all the way back in 2004 (Jose Lima). How about that, huh? A complete game in the playoffs!

Shohei Ohtani went six innings in his only playoff start to this point and he only averaged 3 ⅓ innings a start during the regular season as he built back up from elbow surgery. Tyler Glasnow in his only start so far also went six innings. 

That is eight Dodgers playoff games with an average of 6 ⅔ innings per start. Have you glanced around the rest of the teams to find the assortment of openers and bullpen games and shorter starts? The Brewers aren't even averaging three innings a start. The Mariners have a rotation of starters and haven't used an opener or bullpen game, but they are averaging a touch less than five innings per start. The Tigers have Tarik Skubal, but averaged less than five innings per start in eight games. The Phillies also had a full rotation and averaged five innings per start, exactly. 

For a good reference point, the MLB average during the regular season was 5.2 innings per start, or less than 5 ⅓ innings. The Phillies at 5 ⅔ innings per start led the majors. The Dodgers in the playoffs are dwarfing that and the average is only going up. 

Putting aside the polarizing Dodgers being the ones to do this, fellow fans of the starting-pitcher-as-main-character have to be ecstatic seeing this. I noted above that teams ahead the curve can have success. Just as often, other teams notice what is happening and try to emulate that success. 

Of course, it helps to have deep pockets and ridiculous talent. The Dodgers dealt with injuries to their rotation for much of the season, but things really lined up well for the playoffs, to the point that starters like Clayton Kershaw, Roki Sasaki and Emmet Sheehan were moved to the bullpen. Glasnow has also had an outing in relief. 

There are a good number of teams where any one from the group of Snell, Yamamoto and Glasnow would be their No. 1 starter and Ohtani throws like a frontline starter as well. It's an embarrassment of riches, which, yes, most other teams can't afford. 

Still, they have to go out and perform and the Dodgers' stable of stallions is doing the job like no team we've seen in a century.

That foursome has a 1.54 ERA so far in the playoffs and, again, that's with a heavy workload. If we sort for a minimum of seven games, that's the lowest postseason ERA in the last 100 years. They've struck out 63 against only 13 walks in their 52 ⅔ innings. 

While the Reds didn't have a very good offense, the Phillies (8th in MLB in runs) and Brewers (3rd) were two of the best offenses in baseball this season. The Dodgers starters have held the Brewers to one run in 17 innings in two NLCS games. The Phillies did get them for some runs, but they still posted a 1.92 ERA and got six scoreless innings from both Snell and Glasnow. 

If the Dodgers are going to become the first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 Yankees, it'll have been on the strength of their rotation and the resurrection of a thing that looked like it was dying a slow death these last handful of postseasons.

Welcome back, Main Character Starting Pitcher. You've been missed.