Shohei Ohtani will bat sixth for the Dodgers in Game 3 of the NLCS against the Brewers on Wednesday night. Dave Roberts made the change with the club down 2-0 in the series. Yahoo Sports' Teddy Ricketson called it Ohtani's lowest lineup spot since 2020. ESPN noted that Ohtani is hitting .150 this postseason.
The top of the order is unchanged, per Yahoo Sports and True Blue LA. Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández hit one through three. The middle of the order is what changed. Kyle Tucker and Andy Pages both move up, and Ohtani goes down. The feed summaries don't include Roberts' explanation, and none of the reporting we have quotes him. Sportsnet called the game "pivotal" but gave no reasoning either.
Ohtani is 1-for-7 through two games, as Yahoo reported. Our box scores match that. He went 1-for-3 with a walk and a run scored in the 2-1 loss on Sunday, a game in which the Dodgers stranded 20 runners. He went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in Monday's 7-4 loss, when the Dodgers had three hits and struck out nine times.
The regular season gives a different picture. Ohtani hit .275 with 30 homers, 81 RBI and an .889 OPS in 139 games. That OPS is well above anyone he is now hitting ahead of. Pages has an .811 OPS and Betts .780. Freeman is at .792, Hernández .759 and Tucker .715. Tucker's .233 average is the lowest of the group. So the move reflects what Ohtani has done in October, not what he did over the year.
| G | H | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 139 | 144 | 30 | 81 | .275 | .889 |
The Dodgers finished 100-62 and won the NL West. They now face a Brewers team that went 103-59 and has won both games at American Family Field, each time by scoring just enough. Milwaukee has pitched well and the Dodgers have not turned runners into runs. In Game 1 the Dodgers put runners on constantly and scored once.
Wed, Oct 14, 8:00 PM ET
Game 3 is Wednesday, Oct. 14, at Dodger Stadium. Games 4 and 5 follow there on Thursday and Friday. The Dodgers need all three to keep the series from slipping away. Whether the new order produces runs in front of Ohtani will be clear soon.
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