This worked, and nothing else has. They might as well reverse it.

The Dodgers must once again rely on their surprising asset to save their season.

That’s not Yoshinobu Yamamoto. That’s not Jack Flaherty.

That is TBD – yet to be determined.

For the Dodgers, the deciding game of their National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres should be a bullpen game on Friday.

What other options do they have after eight of their relievers shut down the Padres in an 8-0 win at Petco Park on Wednesday night, tying the series at two games apiece?

“It’s obviously a good idea,” manager Dave Roberts said.

The Dodgers have a flawed rotation and reliable bullpen. It would be practical to remove the problematic part of their pitching equation.

Bullpen games are not a sustainable solution to their starting pitching problems because the relievers would be exhausted quickly if eight of them pitched in every game.

But the Dodgers may worry about how they’ll pitch against the New York Mets in the NL Championship Series once they get there. Right now, they have one game to win, and the obvious answer to how to do that is to play another bullpen game, especially since the relievers who pitched in Game 4 can recover with a day off on Thursday.

Dodgers reliever Michael Kopech reacts during the third inning against the Padres on Wednesday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“We’ve been saying it all year: This bullpen is special,” said left-hander Alex Vesia, who was responsible for five of the Dodgers’ 27 putouts in Game 4.

Of the 21 runs the Padres have scored in this best-of-five series, 15 came against Dodgers starters Yamamoto, Flaherty and Walker Buehler.

All six runs allowed to the Dodgers bullpen were scored in a 10-2 blowout in Game 2, and four of those were the responsibility of Michael Grove and Edgardo Henriquez, who are not considered high-leverage weapons. Grove was removed from the active roster on Tuesday due to a shoulder injury.

There’s something unsettling about watching the franchise of Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela and Clayton Kershaw resort to bullpen games at their most critical times of the season, but Andrew Friedman’s Dodgers are not Buzzie Bavasi’s Dodgers or Fred Claire’s Dodgers.

Asked about fans feeling turned away by bullpen games, Vesia said: “I would say they haven’t seen enough Dodger baseball this year to be like that. I would say if they looked at us they would have a different opinion.”

In their eight bullpen games in the regular season – consecutive bullpen games, as opposed to games in which they used an opener for a starting pitcher – the Dodgers were 5-3 with a 2.92 earned run average.

With Ryan Brasier recording the first four outs in Game 4 as the designated opener, the Dodgers navigated the early innings more efficiently than with their starters.

Yamamoto was crushed five runs in just three innings in Game 1, his performance so alarming that Roberts was convinced he was tipping his pitches. Flaherty gave up four runs in 5 ⅓ innings in Game 2 and Buehler gave up six runs in five innings in Game 3.

Yamamoto, Flaherty and Buehler have a combined ERA of 10.13 in this series. Sending one of them to the mound at Dodger Stadium in Game 5 would be too much of a gamble, especially if Yu Darvish were to start for the Padres. Darvish has a history of success against the Dodgers, limiting them to one run in seven innings in Game 2.

Against the Dodgers hitters, the Padres hitters looked like the Dodgers hitters against Darvish.

The game went more or less as the Dodgers planned, thanks in large part to the efficiency of Vesia, Evan Phillips and Daniel Hudson. Vesia retired the order in the fourth inning on just 12 pitches, allowing him to return for the fifth inning and record two more outs. Phillips hit four outs on 10 pitches. Hudson threw nine pitches in a scoreless seventh.

Roberts used his most reliable pitchers to attack the heart of the Padres lineup, calling on Michael Kopech in the third inning, Phillips in the fifth and Blake Treinen in the eighth.

“They were all fantastic,” catcher Will Smith said. “Attacking the zone, putting guys away, putting up nine outs and we needed that tonight.”

The Dodgers will need that from their relievers again on Friday. That is their best and perhaps only route to the NLCS.