Dodgers rotation for the playoffs isn’t easy to set

On the morning of Game 4 of a 2013 National League division series, up two games to one against Atlanta, the Dodgers maintained that trade-deadline rental Ricky Nolasco would be their starting pitcher. After noon, they announced they’d deploy their ace on short rest instead, and Clayton Kershaw rammed them into the next round.

Just before Game 3 of a 2014 division series, the Dodgers announced that Kershaw would start the next day’s Game 4, not the previously announced Dan Haren. They then admitted Kershaw had been scheduled all along. Come 2015, the Dodgers did not announce a Game 4 starter until the day before, when, again, Kershaw received the nod.

But this season presents a new dilemma, one not as simple as deception. Assuming the Dodgers get to a division series and get to a Game 4, there is no obvious candidate, as starting Kershaw on short rest is a more complicated proposition. Their ace sat out more than two months because of a herniated disk in his lower back and has not displayed his standard command of breaking balls since returning. He has succeeded, but he has thrown no more than 88 pitches in any of three starts.

And so the Dodgers cannot quite count on him for a Game 4, even if he says he is fit to pitch, which he has always said. And they cannot shuffle the other men that make up their top three. Their No. 2 starter, Rich Hill, has not made a bad major league start in seven years, but he has not started many games and the club was concerned enough about the possibility of his blisters resurfacing to pull him during a perfect 89-pitch outing with six outs to go. Nine times since the All-Star break, they have given their No. 3 starter, Kenta Maeda, extra rest.

The primary candidates to garner that Game 4 start appear to be Kershaw, even so; rookie right-hander Ross Stripling, who’s pushing up against his stated innings limit; and left-hander Brett Anderson, who will return Thursday from a monthlong bout with a blister.

There are many less-likely options. Rookie right-handers Brock Stewart and Jose De Leon could, to varying levels of conceivability, earn it, although their workloads are a concern. The Dodgers have said rookie left-hander Julio Urias is shut down from starting, but have avoided assigning a firm cap to his innings. Manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday that Brandon McCarthy could start one of the club’s concluding 11 games, which would appear to make him a candidate. Until he developed a blister, Scott Kazmir was ramping up his return efforts from thoracic spine inflammation.

Stripling may be the most plausible candidate. Carrying a 4.12 earned-run average, he has pitched capably, and because the Dodgers stashed him in Arizona earlier this season, he has innings remaining.

“It’s something that you’re hopeful for and think about a little bit, but it’s also something you try to keep out of your mind,” he said. “I know that Brock Stewart, myself, Urias, we’re all on innings limits, and we’re all pretty much there, so we’re not really sure what they’re thinking, because they don’t really tell us. They just put us in the bullpen and say we’re gonna put you there for a while. We’re not really sure what to expect, all three of us. Throw De Leon in there, too.”

“To think of being in the mix for that fourth spot is pretty crazy. But, being interchangeable, that’s what we work for.”

Stripling’s future parents-in-law and his fiancee, Shelby Gassiott, are not particularly devout fans of baseball, but they enjoy watching him pitch when possible. As long as the couple has dated, that has required heeding a simple starter’s schedule, but often this season it has meant Stripling sending them last-minute text messages.

“I really gotta keep them up with it,” he said.

And the playoffs are not likely to be any different, against similarly scant-in-pitching Washington in a division series, and beyond, if the Dodgers advance, when short rest is less possible because of fewer travel days.

“I figure we’ll probably keep that train going,” Stripling said. “We won’t really know until Oct. 2 or 3 what their plan is.”

When told that Game 4 of the division series was scheduled for Oct. 11, Stripling said he would adjust his expectation.

pedro.moura@latimes.com

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