In meetings on one of the four off days before this National League division series began, the Dodgers’ pitchers discussed how they’d face Washington’s hitters. They decided they’d pound these Nationals with low-and-outside fastballs and attempt to overwhelm another with fastballs in the inner third of the strike zone.
“I don’t know about you guys,” Joe Blanton said at that moment, according to teammate Luis Avilan, “But I won’t throw fastballs at all. I just throw sliders.”
In the seventh inning of Tuesday’s defeat-or-retreat Game 4 at Dodger Stadium, Blanton did as he said.