Dodgers Report Rest assured, they know how to handle hiatus

The Dodgers are getting their bye week after all this October.

- By Jack HarRIs

FREDDIE FREEMAN and teammates try to keep their rhythm during what is essentially a bye week before the World Series.

(ERIC THAYER Los Angeles Times)

Though the club didn’t secure a top-two seed in the National League playoff bracket — meaning they didn’t have a bye through the first round of the postseason as they had the previous three years — its sweep in the NL Championship Series meant that they had plenty of time to kill.

By the time Game 1 of the World Series begins Friday, the team will have had six days off, similar to the break they had at the start of the playoffs each of the last three seasons.

And though the Dodgers didn’t handle such extended layoffs well in 2022 and 2023, getting bounced in their first playoff round thanks to inconsistent offense, they have dusted off the playbook that worked so well for them atthe start oflast fall, when they changed their bye-week routine en route to a World Series title.

Now, as they did back then, the Dodgers are incorporating more simulated game activities into their schedule. On Sunday, they played a seven-inning sim game. On Monday, they took more rounds of live batting practice.

The team is also making a point of spending time around one another at the ballpark.