After his team lost to Toronto Blue Jays in Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday night, Los Angeles Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts has hinted at possible lineup changes in the future.
“I think so,” Roberts told reporters when asked if he was considering making changes to his batting order ahead of Game 5. “I’m going to think long and hard and things might look a little different tomorrow.”
It's a surprising dilemma for a team that led the National League in OPS, runs scored and home runs across the board during the regular season. Major League Baseball takes second place after only New York Yankees in these categories. However, these trends did not translate into the World Series, which is now tied at 2–2.
“We haven't found our rhythm yet,” Roberts said of the team's offensive play against Toronto. “We haven’t. It's kind of a tie in certain parts of the lineup and in different parts, in different innings, in different games. The guys compete. Of course, in the postseason you see everyone’s best players.”
“But yes, I hope that tomorrow we will regroup, collect the information we received from [Trey] Yeah, Savage, keeping him in the strike zone and understanding what that split is doing is definitely helpful, and when we get the fastball, really go after it.”
The Dodgers scored 17 runs in the first four games of the series, which doesn't seem disastrous until you consider that Game 3 lasted 18 innings. Overall, the Dodgers are batting .214/.315/.377 in the World Series and just .207/.294/.207 with runners in scoring position. It's out of character, and that's why Roberts is considering changes.
On an individual level, Mookie Betts, Andy Pages, Tommy Edmanand Kiké Hernandez – that's almost half the roster – faced serious difficulties. That quartet combined to hit just .147/.203/.162 against the Blue Jays. No matter how good the rest of the roster was, it's hard to score points when you're carrying them around. In particular, it will be interesting to see if Roberts corrects Betts, who is ranked second to the leadoff hitter. Shohei Ohtani in every playoff game and almost every regular season game.
From the looks of it, Roberts is going to push all the buttons to squeeze more offense out of a lineup that has been largely tamed by Toronto. It's not exactly a sign of desperation for Los Angeles – the series is a tie, after all – but it does mean things have to improve or they risk things getting worse for the defending champions.
