During most of this World Series, manager Dave Roberts said he had been contemplating a change to the Dodgers scuffling lineup.
After the team’s 6-2 loss in Game 4 on Tuesday, he said he was “going to think long and hard” about the batting order and hinted “it might look a little bit different tomorrow.”
Did it ever.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Dodgers announced a Game 5 lineup that included multiple notable changes. First, slumping shortstop Mookie Betts, who has hit just .147 over his last eight games, was dropped from the No. 2 to No. 3 spot, with catcher Will Smith bumping up to bat behind leadoff man Shohei Ohtani.
At the bottom of the order, Andy Pages was dropped to the bench after batting .080 this postseason, and was replaced by Alex Call in left field. Kiké Hernández shifted from left field to center.
“Getting Alex in there at the bottom, I felt that just the at-bat quality, seeing pitches, the potential to get somebody on base for Shohei at the top [would be better],” Roberts said. “And then as far as Mookie and Will, I just feel that that’s the best way to win the game tonight.”
The moves reflected the urgency of the Dodgers’ situation, in which they find themselves in a 2-2 World Series deadlock with the Toronto Blue Jays thanks in no small part to their .214 team batting average in the series.
“There’s a few of us that need to be successful,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “It can’t always just be Shohei. We understand that.”
Really, the Dodgers haven’t looked right at the plate since scoring 18 runs in the two-game wild-card round. Since then, they scored more than five runs in a game only once (and that came in Monday’s 18-inning marathon, when they had six). They batted .199 as a team in the NL Division Series, .250 in the NL Championship Series and have scored just three runs in the last 20 innings.
“If we’re going up there just trying to hit home runs, it’s just not the name of the game,” Freeman said, later adding: “I do think we just need to check down and have, like, almost a 0-1 mindset and just build innings, extend ‘em, work counts, be who we are. We are always a team that gets starters 70 to 90 pitches by the fourth and we got to do that again and just build innings, keep putting pressure on ‘em, and not have quick 1, 2, 3 innings.”
The struggles of Betts and Pages in particular have been costly, failing to provide an on-base threat in the nine-hole in front of Ohtani (who has had men on base in just six of his 22 plate appearances this series) or lineup protection behind him (with Betts batting just one for six this series following the Blue Jays’ walks to Ohtani).
“There’s some mechanical things,” Roberts said of Betts’ struggles. “But right now, all that matters is just going out there and taking four or five good at-bats. So all I’m concerned about is tonight, and I know that’s what’s on Mookie’s mind too.”
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