The Dodgers are headed back to L.A. for Game 6 of the NLCS with a 3-2 lead, but the club nonethele s faces some question marks regarding who exactly theyll have available tomorrow. Catcher departed Game 5 early after taking a pitch off of his glove hand during the game, but per x-rays on Smiths hand Matt Cain Jersey came back negative and hes expected to be available for Game 6. Thats surely a relief for the Dodgers, given that Smith (111 wRC+) is a ma sive improvement over back-up (86 wRC+) with the bat. Unfortunately, things are le s certain regarding first baseman . The veteran star has struggled at the dish of late while playing through a sprained ankle, with just one hit in his last 15 at-bats. While notes that manager Dave Roberts noted that Freeman is expected to play in tomorrows game just as Smith is, there was more uncertainty regarding Freemans availability as Roberts said he did not plan to decide if Freeman will start today and that whether or not hes in the lineup tomorrow will be determined by how the veteran feels tomorrow. Should Freeman wind up mi sing tomorrows game, would likely slide from third base to first, opening up the hot corner for and center field for . More from around the playoff clubs Yankees left-hander was left off the clubs roster for the ALCS as he rehabs a thats left him sidelined for nearly a month now. Fortunately, Cortes now appears closer than ever to a return to action. As noted by , the southpaw has continued to progre s well and figures to have just one hurdle left to clear in his rehab: a live bullpen se sion in the coming days. If Cortes gets through that bullpen succe sfully, Kirschner suggests that Cortes is expected to be on the clubs World Series roster should they advance. The return of Cortes would surely be a huge boost to the Yankees bullpen mix, particularly after they lost right-hander for the World Series yesterday due to a . Cortes would also add another lefty option to the clubs relief corps. The club currently only features and as lefty relief options, the latter has allowed four of eight batters to reach base to this point in the postseason. Moving on to the Mets , the club opted to give the ball to left-hander rather than right-hander in Game 5 yesterday, and that decision seems to leave the door open to a role change for Senga late in the series. As relayed by , manager told reporters today that he wont hesitate to hand Senga the ball in a relief role in tomorrows game despite Senga having been exclusively used as a starter throughout his MLB career to this point. With Senga evidently available out of the pen, the Mets may have a potentially dynamic relief weapon on their hands whos capable of pitching multiple innings as a bridge to closer . Of course, that would require Senga to have ironed out the i sues that saw him walk four batters and allow three runs in 1 1/3 innings of work against the Dodgers earlier in this series. Donovan Walton Jersey