SAN DIEGO – In the current MLB playoff format, division winners continue to fall like so many dirty pop-ups in the stands. In the National League, Philadelphia and Milwaukee are already gone. In the American League, Houston is dead. Cleveland follows Detroit.

Hanging by a thread after beating the San Diego Padres 8-0 in an elimination game Wednesday at Petco Park, the Los Angeles Dodgers head into a make-or-break Game 5 unsure of their starting pitcher. Only the New York Yankees have a lead heading into Thursday’s Game 4 in Kansas City after beating the Royals 3-2 on Wednesday.

After three years of this format, it has become clear that division winners come into the division series flat and have to wait five days while the wild card teams are allowed to play. It’s no longer just a pattern, it’s a fact. No National League division winners have reached the LCS in the current play-off structure.

For example, the Dodgers are 3-8 in the NL Division Series since 2022. Perhaps expanding the Division Series to a best-of-seven instead of a best-of-five would help, giving division winners more time to sharpen themselves. upwards.

“Right now I wish it was seven games,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday. “It is clear that the seven-match series will certainly test the opponents better. We’ll see if we can work on that. But I definitely like the seven-game series.”

Would it be a remedy to stay put for those five days?

“No doubt, absolutely,” Roberts replied.

But the Dodgers have to work within the current system and showed up well in Game 4 on Wednesday night in San Diego.

The Dodgers didn’t have a healthy starting pitcher and went with their bullpen the entire game. First baseman Freddie Freeman left the lineup late due to his high right ankle sprain. Short stop Miguel Rojas is so beat up that he is on the bench.

But when the Dodgers needed it most, eight pitchers and star players worth $1.4 billion at the top of the lineup defeated the Padres.

That forces a decisive Game 5 on Friday evening at Dodger Stadium. The winner will play the New York Mets in the best-of-seven NL Championship Series that starts Sunday in Los Angeles or San Diego.

The pitching matchup could pit a pair of Japanese pitchers against each other: 12-year veteran Yu Darvish for the Padres and rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the Dodgers. Padres manager Mike Shildt tapped Darvish, while Roberts had not announced a decision and only said Yamamoto is under consideration.

Darvish missed three months midway through the regular season due to a personal matter, but dominated Game 2 at Dodger Stadium, pitching seven innings of one run and three hits to earn the 10-2 win.

On Wednesday, the Dodger bullpen held the Padres to seven hits, three of which came in the late innings when the game was already out of reach. That is a route that could be used again.

Both the Padres and Dodgers have home field advantage over the Mets, who defeated the NL East champion Phillies 4-1 and won their NLDS on the strength of a Game 4-winning grand slam by Francisco Lindor Wednesday at Citi Field in New York.

It says a lot that a team like the Dodgers, with a payroll of $241 million, doesn’t have enough starting pitching to fill a playoff series.

The two-time Ohtani, who is making $700 million in 10 years after joining the Dodgers as a free agent, is still recovering from surgery on his right elbow and is not expected to pitch again until next season. Yamamoto is also one of the Dodgers’ highest-paid players, having signed a 12-year deal worth $325 million.

Yamamoto, who came from Japan last season, missed nearly two months with a right shoulder injury and lasted just three innings in Game 1, allowing five hits and five runs, though the Dodgers came back to win it 7-5. .

That’s why Roberts is reluctant to name him the starter for crucial Game 5.

“We don’t have a Game 5 starter yet,” Roberts said. “Luckily our pen was very efficient. So we have a number of options.”

Mookie Betts, who has a 12-year contract worth $365 million, sparked the Dodgers’ offense early and was second in the order behind Ohtani.

Betts hit a home run in the first inning, and Ohtani hit an RBI single in the second inning. They were on base five times in the game with a homer, two singles and two walks.

Betts has now hit first-inning home runs in consecutive games. It could have been three in a row if San Diego outfielder Jurickson Profar hadn’t reached into the left field spots for that potential home run on Sunday at Dodger Stadium.

“If that dropped, we might talk differently (about the series) now,” Betts said.

Even though it was an out, it appears to have freed Betts from a lengthy postseason slump.

Much has been written about Betts’ recent postseason hits, or lack thereof. He went 2-for-26 the past two postseasons, and 0-for-11 last year. As he started this series 0-for-6, the plot thickened.

He then homered in Game 3 for a 4-for-9 run.

Betts said he has spent most of his waking hours in the batting cage trying to put things right.

“Hit. Kept hitting. That’s all I did. That’s what I know. I work,” he said. “I had to turn off all social media because it was all negative. And I worked hard and in the end I looked one fall and I think we are doing well now.”

With Freeman struggling, starting pitching on life support and no Game 7 in the Division Series, the timing couldn’t have been better. “We have a Game 5,” Betts said. “That’s all I really focus on.”