Rortvedt plugged in as the Dodgers' battery charger

Journeyman thrust into role as the club’s primary catcher with solid defense, hitting.

- BY JACK HARRIS

GINA FERAZZI Los Angeles Times SHOHEI OHTANI throws warm-up pitches before Game 1. Blake Snell was set to start as the Dodgers take the first postseason step of their championship defense.

In the hours leading up to the Dodgers’ Sept. 10 game against the Colorado Rockies, Dodgers catcher Ben Rortvedt was taking a nap.

After the previous week, it was a well-deserved rest.

A 28-year-old journeyman backstop who'd been traded from the Tampa Bay Rays to the Dodgers at the deadline, Rortvedt was called up from the minors and thrust into emergency duty in the middle of a tight division race. In the span of three days from Sept. 3-5, both Will Smith and Dalton Rushing had been injured. And in Rortvedt’s first three starts with the Dodgers after that, he’d twice helped take a no-hitter into the ninth while offering unexpected contributions with his bat.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” Rortvedt said then. “But this gets you battle-tested.”

By Sept. 10, however, Rortvedt’s time in the majors appeared to be ticking. The previous night, Smith had returned to the lineup a week after taking a foul ball off his throwing hand. Rushing was also working his way back from the injured list after fouling a ball off his leg five days earlier. And in what appeared to be one of his final days on the Dodgers’ big-league roster, Rortvedt went for a pregame nap.

When he woke up, everything had suddenly changed.

And three weeks later, he will start behind the plate for the Dodgers in Game 1 of their National League wild card series against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night.

In the lead-up to that Sept. 10 game, Smith’s hand swelled up on him, forcing him to be scratched from the lineup and ultimately go for further testing that revealed a fractured bone where the team initially believed there was only a bruise.