Clayton Kershaw to start Game 4, Dan Haren part of nine-man bullpen in Game 3

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By Jon Weisman

All remaining mystery about Dan Haren’s role in the 2014 National League Division Series has been eliminated. He has been set up as tonight’s long reliever, and Clayton Kershaw has been announced by Don Mattingly as the Game 4 starter.

Nine of Haren’s 11 career relief appearances came 10 seasons ago as a newbie with the Cardinals. The 10th came 2 1/2 years ago in the 14th inning with the Angels, and he pitched a perfect inning. The 11th was in August 2013 with Washington, and he gave up a single while throwing another shutout inning.

In neither of those two recent occasions was he asked to rush into the game. So if Hyun-Jin Ryu got into any trouble early tonight in his first outing in nearly a month, you would no doubt see a short reliever in for damage control, while Haren took his time in the bullpen to get himself ready for the start of an inning.

Haren’s last competitive action came September 27, so he’s on eight days’ rest right now. He had a 2.43 ERA in his final 10 starts of the regular season with 7.6 strikeouts per nine innings and 50 baserunners in 59 1/3 innings. He had seven quality starts out of those 10.

Of the Dodgers’ eight other relievers, three have yet to pitch in the NLDS: Carlos Frias, Brian Wilson and Jamey Wright. Pedro Baez and Scott Elbert pitched Friday, Kenley Jansen pitched Saturday and J.P. Howell and Brandon League pitched in both games.

No Dodger reliever has yet thrown more than 20 pitches total in the NLDS.

As Mark Langill noted earlier, the Dodgers won Game 3 of the 2014 NLDS despite a rough outing from Ryu. One year ago today, Ryu allowed four runs on six hits and a walk in three innings, but the Dodgers rallied for a 13-6 victory.

Eight days later, Ryu threw seven shutout innings against the Cardinals in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series.

“Overall, I feel really good,” Ryu told reporters Sunday. “Compared to the last time I had this injury, I actually took the mound a few more times.  I tried to make sure I didn’t do too much or too little.  I feel very confident right now.  My arm feels really good.  My shoulder feels really strong.  And I have a pretty good feeling I’ll be able to put in a good game.”

Even if Haren doesn’t even have to take off his warmup jacket tonight, he’ll be in a reliever role as needed for the remainder of the series. As was the case a year ago, when the Dodgers were one game from clinching the NLDS in Game 4, Kershaw will start Tuesday on three days’ rest, with Zack Greinke taking Game 5 at Dodger Stadium on Thursday if necessary.

Pedro Moura of the Register looked at what the Dodgers gain or lose by moving up Kershaw. It’s arguably a tossup.