And Saturday’s Starting Pitcher Is…

During his off-day Zoom media session on Friday afternoon, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made it clear who his starting pitcher for Game-1 of the 2021 National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park would be.

Clear as mud.

“The guys are actually at the ballpark right now while we’re getting ready for some staff meetings,” Roberts told reporters online from his Atlanta hotel room. “From Max (Scherzer) to Julio (Urias), to Walker (Buehler), relievers; they’re going there, they’re going to play catch, get some treatment and see how they feel. So, I should know later tonight how Max feels. If not, we’re going to have to bullpen it and probably push guys back. He says he’s good enough to go and feels like he can take down a start, then he’ll be our Game-1 starter.”

Clear as mud.

Then again, anyone who has been around Max Scherzer for more than 10 seconds knows that he will be “…good enough to go.”

Although Roberts did not say who his starter would be for Game-1 of the 2021 NLCS against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday evening, he strongly intimated that it will be Max Scherzer.
(Video capture courtesy of LA Dodgers)

As Dodger fans know, the 37-year-old future Hall of Famer was called upon to close out Thursday night’s National League Division Series finale against the San Francisco Giants. And even though that was only two days ago, the St. Louis, MO native and first-round draft pick in 2006 by the Arizona Diamondbacks out of the University of Missouri did so on only 13 pitches, of which 11 were strikes.

Scherzer, who worked out at Truist Park on Friday afternoon, needed only 13 pitches to retire the Giants in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game-5 of the NLDS on Thursday night.
(Video capture courtesy of MLB)

As of this writing, it was still unknown who the Dodgers NLCS Game-1 starter would be. But if you are the gambling sort, Max Scherzer would be a very safe bet.

Play Ball!

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2 Responses to “And Saturday’s Starting Pitcher Is…”

  1. Kevin Sparkuhl says:

    I’m certain Thursday nights’ effort (warmup and 13 pitches) was a glorified “bullpen day” for Scherzer. He’ll be good to go for six innings tonight.

  2. Kevin Sparkuhl says:

    Well, none of this aged well… as they say.

    If Cory Knebel starts again tomorrow, I’m gonna scream.

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