The Dodgers World Series lineup may look “a little different” for Game 5, teases manager Dave Roberts
Following his team’s 6-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday night, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts hinted at possible lineup changes moving forward.
“I think so,” Roberts told reporters when asked if he was considering making adjustments to his batting order ahead of Game 5. “I’m going to think long and hard and it might look a little different tomorrow.”
This is an unexpected dilemma for a team that during the regular season led the National League in OPS, runs scored, home runs and in the all-around. MLB It ranked second only to the New York Yankees in those categories. However, these trends did not carry over to the World Series, which was now tied 2-2.
“We haven’t found our rhythm,” Roberts said of the team’s offensive performance against Toronto so far. “We didn’t do that. We kind of evened out certain parts of the lineup and different parts, different roles, different games. Guys compete. Certainly, in the postseason, you see the best out of everyone.”
“But, yeah, I hope we can regroup tomorrow, and piece together the information we got [Trey] Savage, keep him in the strike zone and understand what that split does, which is definitely helpful, and when we get the fastball, we really execute it.”
Over the first four games of the Series, the Dodgers scored 17 runs, which doesn’t seem like a catastrophic total until you consider that Game 3 spanned 18 innings. Overall, the Dodgers are hitting .214/.315/.377 in the World Series and just .207/.294/.207 with runners in scoring position. This is out of the ordinary, which is why Roberts is considering changes.
Individually, Mookie Betts, Andy Pages, Tommy Edman and Kike Hernandez – who represent almost half the squad – struggled badly. That quartet combined against the Blue Jays for a slash line of just .147/.203/.162. No matter how good the rest of the lineup is, it’s hard to score points when you do that. In particular, it will be interesting to see if Roberts adjusts to Pitts, who finished second behind lead man Shohei Ohtani in every game of the playoffs and in nearly every game in the regular season.
From the sounds of it, Roberts will push every button he can to extract more offense from a lineup that has been mostly tamed by Toronto. This isn’t a sign of L.A.’s desperation — the series is tied, after all — but things have to improve or they risk getting worse for the defending champions.