LOS ANGELES — After watching another sluggish performance from the Dodgers’ offense in Game 4, Manager Dave Roberts hinted at lineup changes for Game 5.
“It might look a little bit different tomorrow,” Roberts said after the game Tuesday night.
It did.
Roberts moved Will Smith up to second in the order with Mookie Betts dropped to third – his first time not batting in the first or second spot in the order since September 2021. Additionally, Andy Pages (just 4 for 50 this postseason) was benched with Kiké Hernandez moving from left field to center field. Alex Call took Pages’ spot at the bottom of the lineup.
It’s a more significant shakeup than Roberts is inclined to make.
“I think in the postseason, you got to be a little bit more reactive than the regular season,” Roberts said. “When I netted out the value of what I feel gives us the best chance to win today, that was a decision I made, and I think that’s why – like I said, at some point you got to be a little bit more proactive than I normally would.”
Moving Smith ahead of Betts is a product of his at-bat quality throughout the series but is also an attempt to lessen whatever pressure Betts might be feeling to produce behind Shohei Ohtani (particularly when the Blue Jays opt to walk Ohtani). Ohtani has walked 14 times this postseason (intentional or unintentional). Betts is 1 for 11 following those walks with three walks of his own.
“There’s some mechanics. They’re making good pitches,” Roberts said of Betts’ struggles to produce. “He’s working hard to kind of clean some things up.
“For me, it’s just – yeah, there’s some mechanical things. But right now all that matters is just going out there and taking four or five good at-bats, and so all I’m concerned about is tonight, and I know that’s what’s on Mookie’s mind too.”
The move to replace Pages with Call was coming for some time. Pages had not drawn a single walk in the postseason. Call offers a better chance at this point to at least get on base.
“That was kind of the thought,” Roberts said. “Obviously getting Alex in there, I felt that – at the bottom, just the at-bat quality, seeing pitches, the potential to get somebody on base for Shohei at the top. I feel good with Kiké in center field and Alex’s defense in left.”
Since scoring 18 runs in their two-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds in the Wild Card Series, the Dodgers averaged just 3.75 runs per game going into Game 5 on Wednesday. Most critically, they hit just .183 (17 for 93) with runners in scoring position in those 12 games.
“We need to string some hits together,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “Just get some hits, get guys on, work the counts, get guys on, move ’em first to third, get ’em in. Kind of like what we did in the second inning yesterday. We just need to continue that over and over and over again. You’ve got to put pressure on them. If we’re going up there just trying to hit home runs, it’s just not the name of the game.”
OHTANI OPTION
Ohtani pitched into the seventh inning and threw 93 pitches in Game 4 on Tuesday. “If he can go, if it makes sense,” Roberts said Ohtani “would be an option” to pitch out of the bullpen later in the series.
“I haven’t talked to Shohei yet, but obviously he won’t be available tonight. We’ll see where he comes in beyond that,” Roberts said. “I haven’t had that conversation. But certainly, when you’re talking about Game 6, potentially Game 7 of the World Series, it’s all hands on deck. So we’ll see where that goes.”
One potential scenario if Ohtani is available to pitch in a Game 7 would be to start him and follow him with Tyler Glasnow after just one or two innings. That way, Ohtani could stay in the game as DH. If he pitches out of the bullpen later in the game, the Dodgers would lose him as the DH if he doesn’t finish the game as a pitcher.
Roberts said the Dodgers haven’t gotten to that point in the game planning discussions.
LATE NIGHT
When Freeman hit a walk-off home run to end the Game 3 marathon in 18 innings, it was nearly midnight. But Freeman said all three of his sons – 9-year-old Charlie and 4-year-olds Brandon and Maximus – were still awake. But they weren’t paying attention to the game.
“Charlie said he missed it,” Freddie Freeman said. “I don’t know what he was doing in the family room, but he said he missed it. He said he heard a cheer and looked at the TV and I was running around the bases. So I guess he asked my wife to watch the replay.”
UP NEXT
Game 6 – Dodgers (RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 3-1, 1.57 ERA this postseason) at Blue Jays (RHP Kevin Gausman, 2-2, 2.55 ERA this postseason), Friday, 5 p.m., FOX (Ch. 11), 570 AM