Clayton Kershaw named Dodgers’ starter for playoff opener

Zack Greinke might win the National League Cy Young Award, but he won’t start Friday in Game 1 of a division series against the New York Mets.

Clayton Kershaw will.

The announcement came as no surprise, as Kershaw threw a bullpen session at the team’s workout Tuesday at Dodger Stadium.

This will be Kershaw’s third consecutive year starting the Dodgers’ postseason opener.

Kershaw will be followed in the rotation by Greinke, who will start Saturday in Game 2. The first two games of the best-of-five series will be played at Dodger Stadium.

Brett Anderson was named the starter for Game 3, which will be played Monday at Citi Field in New York.

The Mets have also named their starting pitchers for the first three games: Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Matt Harvey, in that order.

The Dodgers didn’t name a pitcher for Game 4, an indication they are thinking of starting Kershaw on three days’ rest. Kershaw has pitched on short rest in each of the last two postseasons.

Asked for his thoughts on starting a pitcher on three days’ rest, General Manager Farhan Zaidi said earlier in the day that “It’s a complicated decision. Part of what complicates it is you usually aren’t going off a great sample, in terms of guys having done it in the past. It’s becoming a less and less frequent thing. There’s no easy way to evaluate it.

“You kind of have to just go case by case. A lot of times see how a series evolves before you make any decisions on that.”

The implication appeared to be that Kershaw could pitch Game 4 if the Dodgers are trailing the series and Alex Wood could do so if they are ahead.