Dodgers stick with same starting rotation for NLCS

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers will stick with the same starting rotation for the National League Championship Series that they used for the NLDS, with Clayton Kershaw in Game 1, Rich Hill in Game 2, Yu Darvish in Game 3, and Alex Wood in Game 4.

“We felt good in the DS with that, and I think just to continue as we kind of looked into matchups with things like that, just to stay and keep the guys on turn just made sense for us,” manager Dave Roberts said Friday.

Dodgers starters had a 3.52 ERA in three NLDS games, with 18 strikeouts and six walks in 15⅓ innings.

Hill had a 2.77 ERA in 14 home starts this season, with 93 strikeouts and 33 walks in 78 innings. He started Game 2 of the NLDS against the Diamondbacks, and allowed two runs in four innings, with four strikeouts and three walks.

He pitched six scoreless innings in winning Game 3 of last year’s NLCS against the Cubs in Los Angeles, with six strikeouts.

Hill pitched for the Cubs from 2005-08, but hasn’t pitched at Wrigley Field since 2008.

Kershaw gets the ball in Game 1 on Saturday. He was 1-1 in two starts in the 2016 NLCS against the Cubs, both at Wrigley Field. He pitched seven scoreless innings in Game 2, and allowed five runs in five innings in the Game 6 pennant clincher for Chicago.

“I don’t really remember the specifics of each game or anything like that,” Kershaw said. “I pitched one good game against them and one bad game against them, and I’m going to re-watch both and try to understand what I did well and what I didn’t do well and try to execute.

“People talk about all the postseason failures that I’ve had a lot, and I understand that. I don’t really look at it like that, though, which is I guess a good thing for me. But I’ve had success at times, too, and I try to marinate on those. It just so happens a lot of the years we’ve lost I’ve been pitching that night, so I’m going to try not to do that this year.”