Padres pitcher usage heading into the NLDS vs. Dodgers

The Dodgers will play the Padres in the National League Division Series, which starts Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles will have had five full days off in between the regular season and their first playoff game, while the Padres get just one day to travel cross country after a three-game wild card series in New York.

Let’s look at how the Padres used their pitchers over the weekend, and how it might affect the NLDS.

The biggest disadvantage of being a wild card team is not having your preferred starting rotation order to open the Division Series. Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, and Joe Musgrove won’t be able to start on regular rest until Games 2-4 of the NLDS, and will likely be able to only pitch once during the series.

Neither Darvish, Snell, nor Musgrove have ever started a game on short rest in their careers, in the regular season or postseason.

But there is another toll levied during the wild card round, with bullpen arms putting extra ticks on the odometer. But that was limited by Darvish and Musgrove each pitching seven innings in their starts against the Mets, earning the two victories that earned San Diego a trip to the NLDS for the second time in three years.

Padres relievers pitched only 8⅔ innings against New York, with only Robert Suarez pitching in two of the three games. San Diego closer Josh Hader only pitched once during the series, closing out Sunday’s series finale with a scoreless inning.