LOS ANGELES — The National League West champion Los Angeles Dodgers started to prepare for their opening-round playoff series against the New York Mets, and lining up aces Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke to pitch the first two games is a given.
The order in which they pitch when the series starts Friday in Los Angeles is not.
Another factor not set in stone is the status of star outfielder Yasiel Puig.
After Puig appeared in his first major league game in more than five weeks Saturday, a reporter remarked to him that he returned from his disabled-list stint looking noticeably lighter.
“Lipo,” Puig joked in Spanish.
Out since Aug. 27 with the most recent of three hamstring injuries this season, Puig returned just in time to cloud the Dodgers’ decision-making for a postseason roster. He went 1-for-3 on Saturday and 0-for-2 Sunday after entering in the fourth inning.
“I’m going to do the best I can,” Puig said through an interpreter. “My goal is to do everything I can to help my teammates. Thanks to them, we’re in the playoffs.”
Indeed, Puig’s contributions to the Dodgers’ 92-win season and third consecutive division title were minimal compared to his impact in 2013 and 2014. He appeared in just 79 games this year, batting .255 with a .758 on-base-plus-slugging percentage between hamstring injuries.
The decision the Dodgers will have to make this week is how much value Puig can bring in their first-round playoff series against the Mets. New York will start right-handed pitchers in four, possibly all five games in a best-of-five series. In order to start Puig, the Dodgers would have to bench one of their left-handed hitting corner outfielders, Andre Ethier or Carl Crawford.
“He hasn’t played (much) in a long time at this point,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said of Puig. “He played in a couple instructional league games (in Arizona). Obviously, we all know those aren’t big-league games.
“I think the best way to say it is — just watch the game and we’ll see what it looks like.”