BOSTON -- For the Dodgers and Red Sox, the best chance to win this World Series is a formula that has been followed for many, many years: Get the absolute most and best you can from your starting pitcher, and then figure out the rest.
Clayton Kershaw is a Hall of Fame-caliber ace, and Walker Buehler a developing one. David Price and Rick Porcello are former American League Cy Young Award winners, while Chris Sale has come close a time or six. Toss in Rich Hill, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Nathan Eovaldi -- all of whom have had moments of greatness in this 2018 run -- and there's an awful lot of starting-pitching pedigree that will be on display during this year's Fall Classic.
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"Both teams have four good starters that they can call upon," Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said. "They have to do their job so that the 'pens are not overexposed. We're getting ready to play five games in six days, so you have to be conscious of how you use the bullpen and how many times they're going to be called upon. So the starters are still a little traditionalist as far as that goes."
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But the mid-game moment will inevitably arise when it's time to go to the bullpen. And if we know anything at all about this 2018 postseason and the way it's played out -- especially with "bullpenning" being all the rage -- that's when things will get really interesting.
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For the Red Sox, "bullpenning" is not the method of the moment. You could almost say "startering" is.
Rookie manager Alex Cora called upon Porcello to be his eighth-inning setup man in Game 1 of the AL Division Series against the Yankees and again in Game 2 of the AL Championship Series against Houston. He used Sale in the same role in the Game 4 clincher in the first round against the Yankees, and Eovaldi in relief during the Game 5 clincher in the ALCS. Cora also had Price warming in the bullpen when Andrew Benintendi made that epic catch to end Game 4 in Houston.
It is, therefore, not unreasonable to suspect we might see a similar setup situation evolve in Games 1 or 2 at Fenway Park.

Cora has not committed to a pitching plan beyond Sale as his Game 1 starter and Price in Game 2, because the possibility that Porcello sees another early setup opportunity is very much on the table. The trust Cora has in his starters to get him key late-inning outs in a pinch is implicit.
"I think it boils down to knowing personality and knowing players," Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly said. "All of our guys have done it before, so it's not anything new. Sale came up as a reliever, Price did it in the bullpen last year, Eovaldi's done it, Rick's done it in Detroit. Alex knows all of that stuff, and, if a guy's ready, Alex has confidence in him."
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Contrary to what the "starter as a setup guy" formula might suggest, the traditional bullpen -- you know, the actual relievers -- has given Cora reason to be confident, too, even though there was much hand-wringing in Red Sox Nation when the team did not reel in a relief prize at the non-waiver Trade Deadline, and then when things looked really hairy going into October.
Kelly (one earned run in 5 1/3 innings), Matt Barnes (one earned run in 6 1/3 innings) and Ryan Brasier (no earned runs over seven innings) have been fantastic this postseason. The relief corps has stranded all 14 inherited runners over the last eight games. Actually, Boston's shakiest reliever right now is its best: Craig Kimbrel, who hasn't commanded his curveball well. Though even with Kimbrel, there is confidence that he ironed out a pitch-tipping issue after a terrific outing in the ALCS clincher.

But the Dodgers appear to be in an even better spot with their bullpen going into this World Series. Their relievers have faced questions this year, as well, with closer Kenley Jansen battling an irregular heartbeat and an inflated home-run rate in the regular season.
In the postseason, however, Jansen has been his old, lights-out self (6 2/3 scoreless innings with a .091 average against), and the rest of the 'pen has followed suit. Ryan Madson, Pedro Baez and lefties Dylan Floro, Scott Alexander and Julio Urias have combined for two earned runs allowed in 25 innings. The biggest hangup has been converted starter Kenta Maeda, who has not been the same lockdown option this October that he was on the run to last year's World Series.
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Los Angeles' predominantly left-handed rotation (Kershaw, Hill and Ryu) could set up well against a Red Sox lineup that posted a regular-season OPS roughly 100 points lower against lefties (.719) than righties (.817). The challenge will be knowing who to trust when the starter fades, especially against a Boston lineup that had baseball's best team OPS (.940) the third time through the order by 51 points.
"We still need Kenta," Honeycutt said. "Our lefties [in the bullpen], instead of handling full innings, can probably just [handle] individual matchups. But the right-handers are going to be tested by this lineup, for sure."

The Dodgers know too well how quickly confidence in a bullpen can evolve. They went into last year's World Series having set a record with 23 consecutive scoreless innings from the bullpen. But when the 'pen broke late in Game 2, the series was irrevocably changed. It became a seven-game set in which no lead was safe.
"I do think that with us last year there was a little bit of overexposure with our 'pen with the Astros," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
So as good as these two clubs might feel about the state of their relief situations, the oldest formula is still the preferred one here. We don't know how long the starters will last in these games, and we don't know how long they'll last in this industry. But for now, for this moment, for this Fall Classic, startering is still a thing.