Jack Flaherty will start World Series Game 1 for Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers will go with Jack Flaherty for Game 1 of the World Series, pinning him against New York Yankees ace and fellow Southern California product Gerrit Cole from Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who has spent all month playing through a sprained right ankle, expects to be in the lineup.

“I don’t think there’s any question on anybody’s mind that I won’t be in the lineup for Game 1,” Freeman said on a virtual call with the media on Tuesday.

Freeman played through noticeable pain when the National League Championship Series shifted to Queens, New York, for Games 3 to 5 and has produced just one hit in his last 15 postseason at-bats.

When the Dodgers returned home last Saturday, Freeman basically knew he’d be sitting out their eventual, pennant-clinching victory over the New York Mets in Game 6. And by the time the World Series begins, Freeman will have had basically six days to rest his ankle.

“It’s very valuable,” Freeman said. “Every day that I can get off my feet and not running and treating this is huge.”

The Dodgers will follow Flaherty with Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Saturday’s Game 2, allowing both of them to make two starts if the series prolongs. Flaherty would go again in Game 5 from Yankee Stadium if he can remain on the standard four days’ rest. Yamamoto, who has been kept on an extra rest to more closely align with what he became accustomed to in Japan, would line up for Game 6.

Walker Buehler, the third member of the Dodgers’ three-man rotation, will start either Game 3 or 4 from Yankee Stadium. A bullpen game will constitute the other, and the Dodgers are still holding out hope for two valuable reinforcements.

Alex Vesia, who’s nursing an intercostal injury that kept him off the NLCS roster, and Brusdar Graterol, who has spent October recovering from shoulder inflammation, are both “trending in the right direction,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. Vesia was expected to face hitters and Graterol was scheduled for a bullpen session from Dodger Stadium before Thursday’s official World Series workout, though their inclusion on the roster might come down to the final hours.

The Dodgers are still uncertain about the status of veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas, who was left off the NLCS roster after suffering a setback with his adductor tear. But Roberts said second baseman Gavin Lux, who recently experienced tightness in his hip flexor, is “full go.”