Two days ago, Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla approached Dylan Cease about the prospect of pitching a potential decisive Game 4 on short rest.
A shorter start in Game 1 was one factor. So was Cease's conviction, especially in his instructions as he attempts to pitch on three days' rest for the first time in his career.
"He was like, 'I don't want to be treated like I've got 30 pitches,'" Padres manager Mike Shildt said before Wednesday's 6:08 p.m. "He's got what he needs to perform."
Cease threw 82 pitches in allowing five runs on six hits and two walks in 3⅓ innings on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium. Shohei Ohtani's second-inning, three-run homer proved to be the critical mistake in coughing up a three-run lead in the first inning.
The Padres split Cease's first two matchups with the Dodgers this season, as he allowed a run in 5 ⅔ innings at Petco Park on July 31 and three runs in five innings at Dodger Stadium on Sept. 25.
Here is how Cease has fared against in his career in the regular season against current Dodgers:
You can see the Dodgers have their fair share of hitters who've been difficult on Cease, but Wednesday's assignment is as much about his pedigree than anything else.
The AL Cy Young runner-up in 2022, Cease tied a career-high with 14 wins, struck out 210-plus batters for the fourth straight season and posted a 3.47 ERA over 189 ⅓ innings in his first year in San Diego.
The highlight of the year, of course, was the no-hitter he threw at the Nationals in late July in Washington, although a near complete game against the Houston Astros down the stretch was a close season.
The Dodgers are going a far different route as the look to avoid elimination in the NLDS in a third straight year: Right-hander Ryan Brasier is starting a bullpen game.
Brasier has been a mixed bag to so far in the postseason.
He struck out a batter and allowed a hit over 1⅔ scoreless innings on Saturday and allowed two runs on a home run to Jackson Merrill.
Brasier had a 3.54 ERA, 25 strikeouts and an 0.964 OPS over 28 innings this year.
Employing a bullpen game is certainly a necessity with so many big-name pitchers on the injured list (Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin to name a few), but opposing relievers have a 3.00 ERA in 24 innings across the Padres' five postseason games.
Most of the damage was the Padres putting up six earned runs in 3⅔ innings off the Dodgers' bullpen in Game 2 in Los Angeles.
Naturally, Manny Machado made light of the left leg issue that forced him out of the batter's box in the eighth inning Tuesday night.
"I'm good, I'm good," Machado said after the Padres' 6-5 win. "Just a cramp."
To Machado's point, he finished the at-bat with a pop-out, finished the game in the field in the top of the ninth and is in his accustomed clean-up spot for a potential decisive Game 4 of the NLDS on Wednesday.