Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start for Dodgers in Game 1 of NLDS vs. Padres

The Dodgers have switched their rotation for the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres, moving Yoshinobu Yamamoto to Game 1 on Saturday night in Chavez Ravine and Jack Flaherty to Game 2 on Sunday night.

Flaherty, the right-hander who was acquired from the Detroit Tigers at the trade deadline, was originally scheduled to start the opener of the best-of-five series. By moving Yamamoto from Game 2 to Game 1, the Japanese right-hander would be available to start a potential Game 5 on Oct. 11 on five days’ rest.

“It’s much more about if there’s a Game 5,” Andrew Friedman, the team’s president of baseball operations, said during Thursday’s workout. “Yoshi hasn’t pitched on regular [four days’ rest]. Jack is more accustomed to it. Depending on our bullpen usage throughout [the series], it allows us that flexibility in Game 5 if there is one.”

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Yamamoto, who signed a 12-year, $325-million deal in December, went 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA in 18 starts this season, missing almost three months from mid-June to mid-September because of a rotator-cuff strain. The Dodgers kept him on a once-a-week schedule that resembled his workload in Japan.

In addition to freeing up Yamamoto for a potential Game 5 start, the rotation switch also will allow Flaherty, who went 6-2 with a 3.58 ERA in 10 starts for the Dodgers, to be available for a Game 5 on regular rest.

Yamamoto gave up eight earned runs and eight hits in six innings of his two starts against the Padres this season, a 15-11 loss in South Korea on March 21 and an 8-7 loss in Los Angeles on April 12.

“It just creates more options,” Friedman said. “If there is a Game 5, depending on the usage of our bullpen, we can have [Yamamoto and Flaherty] take down the game. We can have just one of them with our pen. It creates flexibility for things that we can’t possibly know right now, which is how our pitching is used in Games 1 through 4.”

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Friedman said that after walking through the logic of the switch with Yamamoto and Flaherty that both pitchers “were excited about it.”

Friedman also said he is not concerned about Yamamoto potentially being overexcited about making his first major league playoff start in a series opener, not after watching Yamamoto allow two hits in seven scoreless innings of a nationally televised June 7 game in Yankee Stadium.

“To go into a hostile environment like that and see him elevate his game … we talked about it at the time, that’s not an easy thing to do,” Friedman said. “He has experienced pitching in a lot of big games, and the one thing we feel really confident about is that the moment is not going to affect him. He’s going to take it in and feed on that adrenaline and do what he does.”

Freeman, Rojas injury updates

Shortstop Miguel Rojas (left-adductor strain) is expected to start Game 1, and manager Dave Roberts said he is “optimistic” that first baseman Freddie Freeman (right-ankle sprain) will be in the lineup, but neither will be at full strength.

Freeman, injured while trying to avoid a tag while running out a grounder in the Sept. 26 division-clinching win over San Diego, took live at-bats during Thursday’s scrimmage, but he did not run the bases or play the field, and he appeared to be walking gingerly.

Freeman was scheduled to go through a full workout Friday afternoon, but Roberts said his status won’t be determined until Saturday. If Freeman can’t play, Max Muncy would move from third base to first base and Kiké Hernández would start at third.

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“I’m hopeful — I’m expecting him to be in the lineup,” Roberts said Friday. “What that looks like, I guess we'll know when we see him out there. But with Freddie, I don't doubt that he'll be ready to go.”

Rojas, who missed the final four games of the regular season, during which time he got a cortisone injection to help ease the pain and inflammation that bothered him throughout the final month, was a full participant in Thursday’s activities, joining the team for base-running drills, taking grounders and playing in the scrimmage.

“The fielding part and the hitting part is fine — the problem is running,” Rojas said on Thursday. “I have to be really smart with the decisions that I make. I have to pace myself. We’re looking to play for three more weeks, so if I want to hold that and contribute and be on the field, I need to stay as healthy as I can for as long as I can.”

Rojas aggravated the injury when he stopped between third and home while running from first base on Sept. 25.

“Everything is actually hurting now, when I run straight to first base or I have to run around the bases,” Rojas said. “But it’s kind of the same that I felt in September.”

Ohtani unlikely to face hitters

Shohei Ohtani will continue to throw before playoff games as he rehabs his surgically repaired right elbow.

However, the Dodgers are not planning to have Ohtani throw any live batting practice sessions to hitters during the playoffs.

“Nothing is definitive, but as of now, we’re not going to [have him] throw lives,” Friedman said.

Although Ohtani is nearing the stage of his rehab when he could start to face hitters — a step that would put him in better position to be ready to pitch at the start of next year — the Dodgers have been wary of potentially overtaxing the two-way star in his first MLB postseason.

“The adrenaline, the intensity of these games, it's just different,” Friedman said. “So not layering on that extra element right now, until we at least get into it and just see how he's doing … we will wait right now.”

Musgrove out for NLDS

The Dodgers won’t be the only team with a compromised rotation. Joe Musgrove, one of the anchors of the Padres’ rotation, is out for the postseason and probably all of next season.

Musgrove started the Padres’ wild-card clincher Wednesday but left in the fourth inning. Padres general manager A.J. Preller said Musgrove would require Tommy John surgery.

“I’m devastated about not being able to finish what we started,” said Musgrove, who grew up in San Diego.

Dylan Cease starts Game 1 for San Diego, and he is expected to be followed by Yu Darvish and Michael King. Preller said the Padres had not decided about a Game 4 starter. Veteran Martin Perez is an option: He is 3-1 with 3.46 ERA in 10 starts since Preller acquired him at the trade deadline.

“Replacing Joe Musgrove is a tall order,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “The good news is we have people that we trust, and we have a deep pitching group.”

Musgrove had two stints on the disabled list this season because of right elbow inflammation triggered by bone spurs. At the time, he said Friday, doctors told him the elbow was damaged and he could manage any discomfort but “it was probably a matter of time” before a serious injury might occur.

He got two outs in the fourth inning Wednesday, the first a strikeout of Ozzie Albies. After a ground out, catcher Kyle Higashioka summoned trainers to the mound.

“The punchout to Albies kind of lit me up,” Musgrove said. “Every pitch after that, I felt like I was hanging on by a thread.”

Roberts extended his sympathy to Musgrove.

“Joe is not only a good pitcher, he's a great guy,” Roberts said. “Fantastic guy. And you never want to see that happen to anyone. It's unfortunate. It's rampant in our game.

“So to be at the one-yard line as far as in this series and for him to not be a part of it, it sucks. And I feel for him.”

Columnist Bill Shaikin contributed to this report.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.