Exactly 25 hours before his team’s biggest game of the season, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was certain of only one thing Friday evening about his pitching plans for Game 5 in the National League Division Series.

“Obviously, I’m confident Yoshinobu will be a part of it,” Roberts said Thursday, referring to the offseason’s $325 million signing and Game 1 starter, Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

What exactly does that mean?

“I just don’t know,” Roberts said.

Or, at least, he wasn’t ready to say it yet.

When the Dodgers made a late change to their starting rotation for this series last week, they did so largely with Game 5 in mind.

After initially announcing that trade deadline pick Jack Flaherty would start Game 1, the Dodgers brought Yamamoto to the opener and Flaherty to Game 2.

The idea was to keep both pitchers available for a potential fifth game, giving Yamamoto his standard five days of rest (a schedule he has followed all season since arriving from Japan) and Flaherty the typical four days off that most MLB -take starters before they start.

However, circumstances have changed in the four games since, with the Dodgers and San Diego Padres parting ways to set up Friday’s winner-take-all showdown.

Not only was Yamamoto bowled over in Game 1, giving up five runs in three innings, but he was also believed to be tipping his pitches, an issue that plagued him early in his rookie MLB season.

Flaherty, meanwhile, was only slightly better in Game 2, managing to pitch in the sixth inning, but also gave up four runs in a loss.

Then, of course, there was the success the Dodgers found in a Game 4 bullpen game, shutting out the Padres on a night where eight different relievers combined for nine dominant innings.

It raised a question surrounding Thursday’s off day: Would the Dodgers opt for a traditional start from Yamamoto or Flaherty, or roll back a bullpen scheme that was tantalizingly effective in Wednesday’s elimination game victory.

The answer seems to lie somewhere in the middle.

It seems likely that Yamamoto will pitch at some point. Flaherty will also be available, according to Roberts. But the lure of another bullpen game still beckons — perhaps one in which Yamamoto and/or Flaherty field a few innings but leave the bulk of the game to a lockdown relief corps.

“We’re still talking about it,” Roberts said. “I think the biggest variable is our (utility) guys going out there today, playing catch, seeing how they feel, which will give us a little more information about who ends up bearing the brunt of the game, who starts the game. ”

“But because of what they did last night,” Roberts added of the bullpen, “everybody feels pretty confident going into Game 5.”

The simplest scenario might be for the Dodgers to use an opener on Yamamoto, and bring him out of the bullpen for bulk innings.

Yamamoto has pitched out of the bullpen before in his career, both as a young pitcher in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League and during last year’s World Baseball Classic with the country’s national team.

Roberts said Yamamoto told the team he’s open to doing it again Friday night.

“I just feel like he’s going to do whatever we ask,” Roberts said.

As for Yamamoto’s potential pitch-tipping problem in Game 1, Roberts said the 25-year-old right-hander has “cleaned things up” over the past week.

“Where Yoshinobu is, I feel really comfortable,” Roberts said.

That didn’t stop Roberts from illustrating the benefits of a pitching plan with more bullpens — especially considering the 0.93 ERA of the team’s seven leverage relievers (Michael Kopech, Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Daniel Hudson, Ryan Brasier, Alex Vesia and Anthony Banda) have combined for this series.

“You have a lot of neutrality with our guys,” Roberts said. “I feel like we have a lot of different guys that we can put in certain lanes or certain spots.”

Where Yamamoto, or anyone else on the staff, fits into Friday’s script remains to be seen.

“I think our only focus,” Roberts said, “is finding the best pitchers to prevent runs tomorrow.”

It’s a task that will determine the fate of the Dodgers’ season.