SAN FRANCISCO — After 19 regular-season meetings and four more in the postseason, there is little the Dodgers or San Francisco Giants can do differently in Game 5 of their National League Division Series on Thursday night.
Surprise.
The Dodgers announced Thursday afternoon that right-handed reliever Corey Knebel will start Game 5 against the Giants, not 20-game winner Julio Urías. The expectation is Knebel will serve as a one- or two-inning “opener,” with Urias following and pitching the bulk of the game.
The strategy forces the Giants – who aggressively pursue platoon advantages – to make some early decisions about their lineup construction and potentially lose some of those players when the left-handed Urías replaces the right-handed Knebel.
“I understand it,” Giants third base coach Ron Wotus said on MLB Network on Thursday morning. “We’re a platoon-based club. They’re going to put the ball in our court and have us make a decision. Urías has been very, very good against us and everybody else. So we’ll see how it plays out.”
In Game 2, when Urías started for the Dodgers, the Giants’ lineup featured eight right-handed hitters with shortstop Brandon Crawford the lone left-handed hitter.
Knebel made four starts as an “opener” this season, allowing just one run over 5-2/3 innings total. The Dodgers won three of those four games.
The lone loss came on Sept. 3 at Oracle Park. Knebel pitched the first two innings of a “bullpen game.” The Dodgers lost in 11 innings when Trea Turner made a poor throw to Will Smith, who was playing first base for the first time in his career.
Urías held the Giants to one run on three hits over five innings in the Game 2 victory. Pitching in a variety of roles, he has a 2.13 ERA, holding batters to a .165 average over 17 postseason appearances since 2018.