NEW YORK — For decades, the Los Angeles Dodgers were known for their superstar starting pitchers.

These pitchers remain so indelible that last names largely suffice: Koufax, Drysdale, Valenzuela, Hershiser, Kershaw, all of whom made World Series starts for Dodgers championship teams.

The Dodgers’ 4-2 victory in Game 3 of the 2024 World Series on Monday put them on the cusp of another championship, with a historically insurmountable three games to none lead over the New York Yankees. LA can qualify for Game 4 on Tuesday – traditionally a great opportunity in the career of an ambitious starting pitcher.

The Dodgers’ Game 4 starter? In the aftermath of Game 3, the answer to that question remained: Relief pitcher TBD. But we do know it’s going to be a bullpen game to possibly win the World Series.

“That would obviously be nice to go out and contribute something like that,” Dodgers reliever Daniel Hudson said. “I’m not sure what we’re going to do, but we’re going to go out there and get three, four or five outs and get the ball to the next guy.”

In this postseason, the prominence of the 2024 version of the bullpen implementation has evolved into something new.

In: Relievers used at any point in the game – including the start, as the Dodgers plan to do in Game 4.

From: Preconceived roles. The fewer you have, the better.

“The guys we have there,” Ryan Brasier said, “we compete against each other, and we’re a super tight group. We have fun, but at the same time, when it’s time to lock up, everyone hangs out on the same end off the rope and pulls.”

This isn’t how the Dodgers figured it out last winter, when they signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a massive deal, supplemented him with a slightly less massive deal for Tyler Glasnow and brought back Clayton Kershaw. Add in the returning starters, including several young players, returning players with injuries like Game 3 winner Walker Buehler, trade deadline throw-in Jack Flaherty, and you have a starting pitching bonanza.

Instead, the rotation was plagued by so many ailments that the Dodgers had to lean heavily on a bullpen that doesn’t seem to have a clear pecking order of its own. The improvisational nature of LA’s pitching plan was known from the start in October. The bullpen roles for the Dodgers have always been fluid, but that dynamic has been exacerbated by the shortage of starters. It was all there for the taking.

“There’s maybe five or six guys who have a save this season,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said early in the playoffs. “I feel very comfortable. They’ve all thrown with leverage, whether it’s the fifth, sixth, seventh or ninth. Whatever pitcher I think is best in that particular part of the game, in a part of the setup, that’s who I’m going to use.”

It turns out to be a feature and not a bug. Try to imagine the Dodgers relief staff as a 19th century Old Hoss Radbourn-style pitcher who pitched every game. That pitcher has an ERA of 3.16 over 68 1/3 innings, 13 holds, four saves and no blown saves. Dodgers starters — including a pair of openers — have a 4.76 ERA in 11⅔ fewer innings.

Roberts and pitching coach Mark Prior have massaged the plan with remarkable acuity.

Consider Blake Treinen, whose stuff is reminiscent of his prime, when he was one of the more untouchable relievers in the game. In the past, when managers had a reliever who pitched like Treinen, they could stick him in the back of the bullpen and assign him the last three, four or five outs.

Not Trains. He had a two-inning save, was pulled after giving up a pair of hits in the ninth, and got outs in the sixth and seventh innings. Brasier pitched in the first (twice), fourth, sixth and eighth. You can see any reliever at any time if the leverage is good and the matchup can be exploited against a certain sector of the opponent.

The deeper we get into October, the deeper Roberts is willing to work his rebounding starters. So Yamamoto and Buehler have not only given him efficiency, but also more length than was expected when the series started. This in turn reserves resources for things like a bullpen elimination game, for example.

“I would put our bullpen next to any bullpen I’ve ever been in and any bullpen I’ve ever seen,” said fuckballer Brent Honeywell. Honeywell, who was one of the pitchers more or less ruled out to open Game 4, could nevertheless get a chance in what the Dodgers hope will be the final game of the season. “I want to win, and if that’s the way we have to do it, then that’s the way we have to do it.”

The Dodgers aren’t the only team we’ve seen do this during the postseason. And playoff bullpen games have been around since at least 2019, in the format we know now, but what we saw in October felt different. It’s not bullpenning as a last resort, it’s bullpenning because you can’t score on our damn relievers no matter who they are, so maybe, just maybe, we’re happy to have to do it this way.

The potential pitfall is that your relievers are exposed to the same group of hitters too often over a long series. Roberts is all too aware of that challenge.

“The long and short view of the series weighs into my decision-making,” Roberts said. “It’s a constant in-and-out. But my pitching coaches do a great job of helping me kind of see through it.”

Research on the subject has shown that this can be a problem, but the point is, this is arguably a bigger problem for the traditional draft/setup/closer model of playoff bullpen management than what the Dodgers have done. Sure, there’s a hierarchy in every bullpen, even this one, and those relievers will see the same hitters in a long line. (Although this series may not last long in the end.) But the Dodgers mitigate that by approaching their opponents with so many different arms and in so many different circumstances.

However, that’s how it scans now, because it worked. The Dodgers will attempt the ultimate proof-of-concept by rolling out a parade of relievers on Tuesday. If it works again, the reward will be a parade.

Meanwhile, teams with a strong rotation (Philadelphia, Kansas City) and star closers (Cleveland, Milwaukee) have fallen by the wayside. The Dodgers, the team that can buy as much certainty as you can get on a baseball roster, are one win away from the ultimate prize, largely because of the way they have embraced their bullpen.

Going into Game 4, you might think there’s a bit of lobbying among the relief group to be the last man standing. After all, the final pitcher of every World Series clincher achieves a degree of instant immortality.

But there is no such lobby. Not from these Dodgers.

“No one here has any ego,” Brasier said. “It’s not until the phone rings that everyone is ready.”