Column: Dodgers are looking like the real deal

Are you ready to buy into a team without a starting rotation?

Are you ready to embrace the big-bank version of Andrew Friedman’s small-market approach?

Are you ready to open your heart again to a franchise that has virtually banished Vin Scully from local television sets?

In other words, are you ready to believe in the Dodgers?

If you’re reluctant, it’s understandable.

The Dodgers didn’t look like a championship team on opening day. By conventional standards, they still don’t.

Except they’re a week into September and leading the National League West by four games over the second-place San Francisco Giants.

The Dodgers can score runs. They can close out games. And if Clayton Kershaw returns from a back injury and newcomer Rich Hill remains blister-free, the front end of their rotation could be formidable.

Maybe it’s time to consider what was once unthinkable, that this oddly constructed roster could deliver the Dodgers their first World Series in 28 years.

“There are many people that wrote us off,� Manager Dave Roberts said. “The important thing is the guys in that room didn’t.�

But even they acknowledge this season has changed their thinking of how baseball games can be won.

“I guess I really haven’t thought about it, but, yeah,� Kershaw said.

Roberts made a similar confession.

“No doubt,� Roberts said.

Speak to almost any baseball person and he or she will tell you the foundation of any team is the starting rotation. The Dodgers don’t have a rotation as much as a bag from which they pluck out names, as their injury-prone starting pitchers have predictably taken turns visiting the disabled list.

Their starters have averaged fewer than five innings per game since the All-Star break. Kenta Maeda, who basically flunked his entrance physical, leads the Dodgers in innings pitched with 1531/3. Only two others have pitched more than 100 innings: Scott Kazmir, with 1351/3, and Kershaw, with 121.

Their bullpen entered Tuesday as the major league leader in innings. The others who rank in the top 10 in that category make up a who’s who of the worst teams in baseball.

Generally speaking, bullpens can’t shoulder this kind of workload and remain effective, but the Dodgers relievers were second in NL in earned-run average through Monday.

Because their reserves were typically players who could field multiple positions, the Dodgers were often able to have four players on their bench instead of the customary five. Before rosters expanded this month, they frequently used that roster spot on a reliever, which helped offset the extra innings.

“When you look back, it’s, ‘Wow, there are different ways to navigate a season,’ � Roberts said.

Roberts credited the relievers for being flexible.

“It doesn’t work if guys in the bullpen aren’t willing to pitch at any point in the game,� he said. “When you have set roles in the pen in the seventh, eighth and ninth, it doesn’t work. In our game, if the starter goes three or four innings, that game could be decided in the fourth inning. You might have to use your second-best guy in the fourth or fifth inning. We’ve done that. There has to be a buy-in on their part.�

You could argue the Dodgers lucked into this formula. You could say that the team’s decision makers shouldn’t be boasting about how their depth allowed them to overcome their record-breaking number of injuries, as that depth wouldn’t have been necessary had they made better decisions regarding their front-line players.

But the results are the results, and the results indicate the Dodgers should be playing baseball next month.

When they do, they could be better-positioned to make a run at the World Series than they were last year.

The offense is far superior to what it was last October, when Adrian Gonzalez was the only real threat in the lineup. Justin Turner was playing on one leg, Yasmani Grandal was hitting with one arm and Corey Seager had only one month of major league experience.

Seager has developed into a most-valuable-player candidate. Turner and Grandal are healthy. Joc Pederson avoided the second-half slump that crippled him last season and provides a legitimate source of power.

“You might be able to get us out once through the lineup, maybe even twice, but it’s really hard to get the same guy out three times in a row in this lineup,� Kershaw said.

With the bullpen also improved, Kershaw could be the last component of a championship equation. When he takes the mound Friday in Miami, he will be pitching in the major leagues for the first time in 21/2 months.

It’s still too early to plan a championship parade. But it’s not too early to start dreaming.

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Twitter: @dylanohernandez

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