Postseason Notes: Dodgers, Cortes, Senga

The Dodgers return to LA for Game 6 of the NLCS with a 3-2 lead, but the club still faces some question marks about exactly who they will have available tomorrow. Catcher Will Smith left Game 5 early after picking up a pitch from his glove hand during the game, but according to Mike DiGiovanna of the LA Times, X-rays of Smith's hand came back negative and he is expected to be available for Game 6. That's certainly a relief for the Dodgers, considering Smith (111 wRC+) is a huge improvement over the backup Austin Barnes (86 wRC+) with the bat.

Unfortunately, the situation is less certain at first baseman Freddie Freeman. The veteran star has had trouble at the bowl lately due to a sprained ankle and has had just one hit in his last 15 at-bats. While Jack Harris of the LA Times notes that manager Dave Roberts noted that Freeman will play the same as Smith in tomorrow's game, there was more uncertainty about Freeman's availability, with Roberts saying he had no plans to decide whether to play Freeman will start today Whether he will be in the squad tomorrow or not depends on how the veteran will feel tomorrow. If Freeman misses tomorrow's game, Max Muncy would probably slide from third base to first and open the hot corner for Enrique Hernández and midfield for Andy Pages.

More from around the playoff clubs…

• While Yankees Left-handed Nestor Cortes was left off the club's roster for the ALCS after suffering a flexor muscle strain late in the season that has sidelined him for nearly a month now. Fortunately, Cortes appears to be closer than ever to a return to action. As The Athletic's Chris Kirschner noted, the southpaw has continued to perform well and is expected to have just one hurdle left in his rehab: a live bullpen session in the coming days. If Cortes successfully gets through this bullpen, Kirschner suggests that Cortes will be “expected” to be on the club’s World Series roster if they move up. The return of Cortes would certainly provide a huge boost to the Yankees' bullpen mix, especially after losing right-handers Ian Hamilton out for the World Series due to a calf injury. Cortes would also add another lefty option to the club's relief corps. The club currently only offers features Tim Hill And Tim Mayza As a lefty relief option, the latter has allowed four of eight batters to reach base to this point in the postseason.
• Let's continue Metsthe club decided to give the ball to the left-handed player David Peterson rather than right-handed Kodai Senga in Game 5 yesterday, and that decision seems to leave the door open for a role change for Senga towards the end of the series. As relayed by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, Manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters today that he “will not hesitate” to hand the ball to Senga as a substitute in tomorrow's game, even though Senga has been used exclusively as a starter throughout his MLB career. With Senga obviously available out of the box, the Mets may have a potentially dynamic relief weapon capable of providing multiple innings as a bridge to the closer Edwin Diaz. Of course, that would require Senga to have ironed out the issues that caused him to walk four batters and allow three runs in 1 1/3 innings against the Dodgers earlier in this series.