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With the 21st pick of the fifth round of the 2011 draft, the Boston Red Sox selected a high school shortstop named Mookie Betts. The kid, as it turns out, plays a pretty mean shortstop.

With the first pick of the fifth round of the 2011 draft, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected a Hart High pitcher named Tyler Glasnow.

Fourteen years later, with Betts playing behind him, Glasnow on Thursday gets the chance to pitch his hometown Dodgers into the National League Championship Series.

“It would be awesome,” Glasnow said. “Growing up, loving the team, being able to pitch for them now?

“It would be everything.”

For Glasnow, yes, but also for the Dodgers.

It would eliminate the possibility of the Dodgers playing for their lives on Saturday, amid the deafening decibels of Citizens Bank Park.

And it would vindicate the Dodgers’ strategy of all but mothballing an elite starting pitcher for almost three weeks and then handing him the ball and asking him to win them the division series.

Glasnow last made a normal start 19 days ago.

Read more:Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Dodgers quickly lose control in NLDS Game 3 loss to Phillies

He has pitched twice since then: an intentionally abbreviated three-inning start 12 days ago, and a relief appearance five days ago, in Game 1 of this division series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

“I think he's full go,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It was nice to get him in there in Philly, but as far as kind of his buildup, I think it's just a normal start.”

In fairness to the Dodgers, they had no idea this would finally be the year they would have a full house of healthy and effective starters at the end of the season, instead of at the beginning.

They opted for Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani as their top three starters. The wild-card round only lasted two games, and Glasnow is starting Game 4 of the division series.

That meant juggling the rotation so the top three would be ready for the wild-card round, and giving Glasnow an outing in relief to keep him sharp.

“He’s been starting the whole season,” catcher Ben Rortvedt said. “I don’t think a lot changes. He threw out of the bullpen, and I think that was the big challenge for him.

“He’s back to schedule, back to doing what he does. Looking forward to it.”

It is not entirely fair to judge a player by his salary, but that is what you sign up for when you play for the Dodgers, who traded for Glasnow two winters ago and then awarded him a contract for $136.5 million. He made the All-Star team last season, but tendinitis in his pitching elbow kept him from pitching in the playoffs.

It also is not entirely fair to judge a player by his postseason results, but that too is what you sign up for when you play for the Dodgers.

In 10 postseason starts — all for the Tampa Bay Rays — Glasnow is 2-6 with a 5.72 earned-run average.

In his lone appearance against the Phillies this season, Glasnow pitched two-plus innings, walking five and giving up five runs.

Read more:Plaschke: Dodgers blow surefire win in NLDS Game 3 vs. Phillies, and now they could blow the season

The opposing pitcher that day is the opposing pitcher Thursday: Cristopher Sánchez, with the Dodgers one win from a berth in the NLCS.

The Dodgers invited Steve Garvey to throw out the ceremonial first pitch Wednesday, and after that to deliver the ritual words that precede every home game.

Garvey inserted a word into Vin Scully’s trademark phrase.

“It’s time for Dodger championship baseball,” Garvey said.

On Thursday, Glasnow can make sure it’s time for Dodger championship series baseball.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The familiar sound reverberated throughout Dodger Stadium.

Crack!

The baseball soared into the October sky, Shohei Ohtani gliding down the first-base line as he watched it travel back, back, back …

… only to be caught a few inches in front of the left-field wall by Max Kepler.

So close.

Read more:Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Dodgers quickly lose control in NLDS Game 3 loss to Phillies

So close to a seventh-inning home run that could have made Game 3 a game. So close to a home run that could have revitalized baseball’s best player in this National League Division Series.

Ohtani is now one for 14 with seven strikeouts in this best-of-five series, in which the Dodgers’ lead was reduced to two games to one after an 8-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.

While Ohtani was hitless in five at-bats on Wednesday night, Phillies counterpart Kyle Schwarber launched two homers, including a 455-foot blast in the fourth inning that changed the complexion of the game and series.

The heart of the Phillies’ order awakened, the Dodgers’ didn’t, and that was more or less the difference in the game.

Ohtani is the Dodgers’ failsafe, and the failsafe is failing. The Dodgers remain in control of this NLDS, but considering the shortcomings of their present roster, they almost certainly can’t win a World Series with him being as ineffective at the plate as he was for extended stretches of the postseason last year.

The Dodgers did everything in their power to ensure Ohtani’s transformation into Oh-fer-tani wouldn’t become an annual event.

By not sending him to the mound in either of the first two games of their wild-card series, the Dodgers were able to delay his first start as a pitcher until Game 1 of this series. Because the schedule called for a day off between Games 1 and 2, Ohtani didn’t have to play the day after making a start, a situation in which he has difficulty hitting. In the regular season, Ohtani batted just .147 on the days following his starts.

If the Phillies can send this series back to Philadelphia for Game 5 on Saturday, Ohtani would be the Dodgers’ starting pitcher. Under that scenario, he also wouldn’t have to hit the next day. The NL Championship Series doesn’t start until Monday.

However, the team’s assistance hasn’t benefited the left-handed-hitting Ohtani in the batter’s box, as the Phillies have shut him down by deploying a series of hard-throwing left-handed pitchers against him.

Ohtani has taken 15 plate appearances in this series and 12 of them were against left-handed pitchers. Of his three plate appearances against right-handed pitches, two were against closer Jhoan Durán, who is armed with a 100-mph fastball.

Cristopher Sánchez, who will start for the Phillies on Thursday in Game 4, struck out Ohtani each of the three times he pitched to him in Game 1. Jesús Luzardo, a candidate to start a potential Game 5, didn’t allow a hit to Ohtani in any of the three at-bats in which they faced each other.

“I think the lefties are part of it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But I just think his decision making hasn’t been good.”

Phillies left-handers have attacked Ohtani with sinkers that come in on his hands.

“You can see it’s balls in, off the plate, and he’s not really giving himself a chance to hit a mistake,” Roberts said. “I just think he’s in between a little bit, but the swing decisions are just not where they need to be right now.”

Ohtani answered as many questions about his mini-slump as he had hits Wednesday. Approached in the clubhouse after the game, Ohtani offered nothing more than a blank stare.

The image-conscious two-way player doesn’t like to say to reporters directly that he won’t speak, as doing so after, say, a hitless game could make him look as if he is skirting accountability. Ohtani instead entrusts the team’s public relations staff to decline interviews on his behalf.

On this particular night, a Dodgers security guard ran interference for Ohtani, pointing to nonexistent rules against speaking to him without the public relations staff’s permission. (Baseball’s media access regulations are set by the collective-bargaining agreement between the league and the players’ union, not any particular team. There are no restrictions on approaching players in the clubhouse, but players have the right to refuse to answer questions.)

In a nearby interview room, Phillies manager Rob Thomson was careful to not celebrate his team’s success against the NL’s likely most valuable player.

“I really don’t want to comment on that because, I mean, he can explode at any time,” Thomson said.

Read more:Plaschke: Dodgers blow surefire win in NLDS Game 3 vs. Phillies, and now they could blow the season

Ohtani’s only hit of the series was an important one, a single in Game 2 that drove in what turned out to be the winning run.

“He’s that great of a hitter,” Thomson said. “But we have pitched him well.”

There is no player who moves on from an abysmal performance as well as Ohtani. To that point, before the failed attempt to ask him about his offensive troubles, Ohtani shared a laugh with Justin Dean and bumped fists with the reserve outfielder.

Ohtani looked as if he had already placed the 0-for-five night behind him, which had to be a relief for the Dodgers. He will have to hit at some point this October, if not in this series, in the next, or the one after that.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.