The Dodgers will be in every game they play in October, and that alone means they will enter the playoffs as the favorites to win the World Series.

Not because of Shohei Ohtani. Not because of Freddie Freeman. And certainly not because of their bullpen.

There were a number of alarming developments in the last week or so, but if any team is designed to survive them, it’s the Dodgers.

Whatever their problems, they still have the best rotation in baseball.

No player influences the outcome of a game as much as a starting pitcher, and the Dodgers are the only team that will be able to roll out one Cy Young Award-caliber arm after another after another.

The Dodgers were negligent with Ohtani, and the verdict on their management of Freeman is pending, but they at least set up their pitchers the right way.

The rotation is more than a collection of big names. In Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal and Blake Snell, the Dodgers have three starters who are peaking in time to deliver the kinds of performances that will be required for them to win their third consecutive World Series.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched seven shutout innings on Tuesday in a 4-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds, marking his third consecutive seven-inning start.

“I feel really good and I don’t have any physical problems,” Yamamoto told reporters in Japanese. “I want to treat practice each and every day with importance and go into October in the best condition.”

Yamamoto isn’t alone.

The day before Yamamoto’s start, Tarik Skubal pitched seven scoreless innings of his own in a 4-1 victory over the Reds. In his previous start, which was also against the Reds but at Dodger Stadium, Skubal pitched 7 ⅓ innings.

“Just getting in a rhythm,” Skubal said.

Blake Snell, who is scheduled to take his turn in the rotation on Wednesday, was 4-0 with a 1.04 earned-run average in the six games he started since returning from an elbow cleanup that cost him three months.

The one source of concern in the rotation is Tyler Glasnow, who, like Snell, was slow-played in his return from an injury. Sidelined for 3 ½ months because of back problems, Glasnow showed promise in his first couple of starts after he came back. But in his last two starts, he gave up a combined eight runs, 11 hits and seven walks in 10 innings. But as the team’s No. 4 starter, he is unlikely to start more than one game in any postseason series. 

Even before Ohtani was placed on the injured list because of right arm and left knee injuries, the starting pitching was likely going to have to carry the Dodgers – much as it did last year.

Recent developments have shifted even more of the burden to the starting pitchers.

Edwin Diaz, their $69-million closer, was blow-torched for five runs in ⅔ of an inning in the most recent game of his minor-league rehabilitation assignment. At this point, he’s a longshot to make the postseason roster.

Diaz’s failure to rediscover his All-Star form will have major ramifications on the bullpen, which lost ninth-inning candidate Edgardo Henriquez to a lower-back problem for the remainder of the regular season. Henriquez’s status for the playoffs remains a mystery.

Manager Dave Roberts’ current ninth-inning choice, Tanner Scott, is in a minor slump, as he has given up runs in five of his last 12 apperances. 

While the Dodgers will have to find a closer – Roki Sasaki? – their ability to create favorable matchups in the innings before the ninth is also under question. The simplest way to address those uncertainties will be for the starters to pitch deeper into games. Last year, Yamamoto pitched a complete game in the National League Championship Series and another in his next start in the World Series. Snell had an eight-inning start in the NLCS.

The greater problem could be the already-inconsistent offense, which could go into the playoffs with physically-compromised versions of Ohtani and Freeman.

Freeman missed three of five games before starting at first base on Tuesday. Freeman collected three hits in the game, but he’s 37 years old and the Dodgers can’t be certain how his right knee will hold up.

As for Ohtani, Roberts reported on Tuesday that he resumed baseball activities. Roberts said he expected Ohtani to return before the end of the regular season, but hedged his prediction. 

“Whether it happens or not,” Roberts said, “is to be determined.”

If the Dodgers don’t know if Ohtani will be able to even step into the batter’s box next week, how could they possibly count on him to be a consistent source of offense?

They can’t.

In other words, the margin for error could be miniscule for the Dodgers. Their starting pitchers might have to be close to perfect. The challenge will be formidable. But considering who will be pitching for them, it will be very much in the realm of possibility.