Baseball Hall of Famer John Smoltz said Friday he thinks the New York Yankees have one big advantage over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
The eight-time All-Star talked about the Yankees’ advantage when he joined OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me With Dan Dakch.”
“I think the Yankees have an advantage in the starting rotation. They have four starters. We haven’t seen four starters all year. At least I haven’t in the series that I’ve had, we’ve had bullpen games for the Dodgers. They are going to have bullpen games again, but the Yankees can throw out four starters,” Smoltz said.
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John Smoltz acknowledges the crowd during the introduction of returning inductees at the National Baseball Hall of Fames 2024 induction ceremony on Sunday, July 21, 2024, at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, New York. (IMAGN)
“Which if (the Yankees starters) do their job and have a nice little streak going. I read something in the stats, and I had to do a double take, because it seems so simple. But the Yankees have seven consecutive games of four innings and two runs or less given up.
“Now, four innings is not a lot, but that just tells you where we are in the state of the game for what is being valued and what the commodities that certain teams have or don’t have.”
The Yankees’ four starters that they used this postseason are Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil.
Cole is starting Game 1, while manager Aaron Boone has announced that Rodón and Schmidt will start Games 2 and 3.
Because the Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians in five games in the ALCS, it gave them a chance to set their rotation how they wanted. Had they lost Game 5 in Cleveland, Cole would have started Game 6 and not been able to start until Game 3 or 4 in the World Series.
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New York Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole (45) speaks to the media before game one of the ALCS against the Cleveland Guardians during the 2024 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium. (Brad Penner-Imagn Images)
The Dodgers, on the other hand, only have three starters: Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Walker Buehler. Through 11 games, Dodgers starters have just pitched a combined 40 innings, relying heavily on the bullpen.
Smoltz said manager Dave Roberts has to be smart about how he manages his bullpen.
“Now the Dodgers do have an extraordinarily deep bullpen, and they are going to rely heavily on it in the games that they can win,” Smoltz said. “They’ve been very fortunate. Dave Roberts has done an incredible job navigating the games he can win versus the games they got blown out and didn’t have to use high-leverage guys. But when you throw 70% of your innings or more out of your pen and the series goes six or seven innings, you got to be heroic to win that series. I think the Dodgers have the advantage in the bullpen.”
In the NLCS, the narrowest margin of victory for the winning team in each game was four runs, making decisions for Roberts easy about whom to bring in from the bullpen, as the games weren’t particularly close. Smoltz doesn’t anticipate the World Series playing out the same way.
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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Jack Flaherty (0) reacts after the final out in the third inning against the New York Mets during game five of the NLCS for the 2024 MLB playoffs at Citi Field. (Brad Penner-Imagn Images)
“I think this is going to be a tighter-played World Series and Dave Roberts is going to have really hard decisions to make. Let’s just say in the fifth inning, down one, you know, or even down two, he’s got a spread in his mind that if he is three down or more, he is not going to probably use those guys to stay in the game,” Smoltz said.
“He’ll hope he can stay in the game with other relievers, but he has to keep his five or four top relievers in a position for the knockout punch. So that’s where the starters for the Yankees can really put a tough narrative for Dave Roberts.”
Cole comes into his Game 1 start with a 1-0 record in his three postseason starts, with a 3.31 ERA across 16.1 innings.
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New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole (45) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Kansas City Royals during game four of the ALDS for the 2024 MLB Playoffs at Kauffman Stadium. (Denny Medley-Imagn Images)
Flaherty is starting Game 1 for the Dodgers and has been more of a mixed bag, going 1-2 in three games with a 7.04 ERA across 15.1 innings. In Game 1 of the NLCS, Flaherty threw seven shutout innings against the Mets, but he got rocked in Game 5, giving up eight runs in three innings.
Roberts announced Yamamoto will start Game 2 for the Dodgers, but no decision has been made on whether Game 3 will be a Buehler start or a bullpen game.
The World Series will officially begin with Flaherty throwing the first pitch at Dodgers Stadium on Friday at 8:08 p.m ET on FOX.
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