SAN DIEGO – Think for a moment about what the possibilities were.

Imagine if the Dodgers hadn't lost as much as an additional starting rotation of pitchers in a baseball-wide series of arm, elbow and shoulder injuries that hit them particularly hard. What would their playoff rotation have looked like?

Maybe Tyler Glasnow as the ace, a fully functional Yoshinobu Yamamoto (and not one still coming back from a triceps injury) as a solid Game 2 starter, followed by Jack Flaherty – sure, they still would have traded him – and a healthy Clayton Kershaw or a completely rejuvenated Walker Buehler. You'd take your chances with this foursome any time, wouldn't you?

Instead, the Dodgers had 18 different pitchers on the injured list at various times. The more than $1 billion they committed to new signings in the offseason didn't bring good health. And based on that alone, this might have been the most unlikely 98-win team in baseball.

So consider again: For the most important game of their season on Wednesday night, they gave the ball to Ryan Brasier to start a bullpen game. And they adjusted the lineup card just before the game began because there would be no All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman after shortstop Miguel Rojas was already ruled out.

With their season on the line and most observers expecting an early postseason exit like the last two years, these Dodgers naturally fought back. Their 8-0 victory secured the fifth and deciding game of the National League Division Series Friday night at Dodger Stadium, where the noise and energy will be on their side, just as it was on the Padres' side at Petco Park Tuesday – and Wednesday evening.

Bullpen games typically aren't as big of a disadvantage as they seem. The Dodgers had been over .500 in such games over the past three regular seasons, and Brasier and company limited San Diego to seven hits, keeping the explosive part of the Padres' order relatively quiet and reducing the decibel level of a crowd he was excited about Send the arch-enemy into winter.

Instead, the Dodgers now have a chance to banish the ghosts of the last two Octobers.

Mookie Betts appears to be emerging from a three-year postseason slump with homers in the last two games (after being robbed by Jurickson Profar in Game 2 in LA) and two hits on Wednesday night. Will Smith and Gavin Lux also hit home runs, but the lineup also scored runs, including (gasp!) a safety squeeze by Tommy Edman in the seventh.

Accident? Bah.

“I mean, we had a lot of injuries all year and we kind of had the best record in the league,” utility man Kiké Hernández said. “I think tonight was just an example of what this team is capable of and the fact we did it without Freddie and Miggy was just a bonus.

“I feel like we have a great, strong team overall. And tonight it showed.”

So instead of lamenting that the Dodgers are facing elimination games, perhaps we should praise them for getting to this point after their original blueprint was so torn up.

The most striking example is the pitching staff. Glasnow and Kershaw, of course, were done for the year before the postseason began. Young prospects Emmet Sheehan and River Ryan were sidelined early in the season, and former All-Stars Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May were never available – although the prospect of Gonsolin as a late-season addition was tempting for a while. Bobby Miller essentially came off the roster after his own stint at Illinois, and Buehler wasn't always the same big-game pitcher we'd become accustomed to.

Pitching is important. But there were also injuries to position players. Muncy was out for a long time. Betts broke a bone in his hand when he was hit by a pitch in mid-June. Lux, who missed the entire 2023 season with a knee injury, needed time to get back into the swing of things.

And there were these ghosts. Lost in four games to the Padres in a 2022 NLDS. In 2023, Arizona was defeated. Both came after 100-win seasons, and the fallout undoubtedly led to the spending spree last winter for a franchise for which winning the World Series is the only acceptable outcome.

Things could still get bloody on Friday night, and if not, then somewhere in the future. But they gave themselves a chance.

“There were periods where we lived up to expectations, but for most of the season we as a group underperformed and were able to win the division,” Hernández said. “I was a little shaky for a second, but here we are.”

And maybe the big guns are starting to come out. Betts' home run in the first inning – a 403-foot shot to center field that provided the first indication that Padres starting pitcher Dylan Cease was off track – ushered in his second straight two-hit night, a sign that the 0-for-22 postseason slump he sustained in Game 3 could be a thing of the past.

“I just want to do my part,” Betts said in the interview room afterwards. “I’m not trying to win the game for us. And we have a lot of people who can win games for us. I just want to do my part in the team. And that’s all I focused on.”

There are now twenty-five other guys supporting him in this clubhouse.

“I know he had some struggles in the postseason, but he's still one of the best players in baseball,” infielder Max Muncy said. “He has been an incredible player in the past in the postseason and had a rough patch.

“I think the biggest thing for him was getting that out of his head, and now that he's had a few hits, he can go back to being Mookie Betts. … I tell him every time they leave (Shohei Ohtani) to pitch him: 'Hey, you get $400 (million) too, bro.' 'You're still one of the best players.' Sometimes you have to just being reminded that you are who you are.”