Following his staff’s 6-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in Sport 4 of the World Collection on Tuesday evening, Los Angeles Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts hinted at potential lineup adjustments transferring ahead.
“I feel so,” Roberts stated to reporters when requested whether or not he was contemplating making changes to his batting order forward of Sport 5. “I will assume lengthy and laborious and it’d look slightly bit totally different tomorrow.”
That is an sudden dilemma for a staff that throughout the common season led the Nationwide League in OPS, runs scored, and residential runs and throughout all of MLB ranked second to solely the New York Yankees in these classes. These tendencies, nonetheless, haven’t carried over into the World Collection, which is now tied 2-2.
“We’ve not discovered our rhythm,” Roberts stated of the staff’s offensive efficiency in opposition to Toronto so far. “We’ve not. It type of attracts lifeless at sure components of the lineup and totally different components, totally different innings, totally different video games. Guys are competing. Definitely, within the postseason, you are seeing everybody’s finest.
“However, yeah, my hope is we regroup tomorrow, collect the data that we had from [Trey] Yesavage, and preserve him within the hitting zone and perceive what that break up does, which is actually useful, and after we get the fastball, actually get on it.”
The Dodgers by means of the primary 4 video games of the sequence have scored 17 runs, which does not sound like a disastrous whole till you think about that Sport 3 spanned 18 innings. Total, the Dodgers within the World Collection are batting .214/.315/.377 and simply .207/.294/.207 with runners in scoring place. That is out of character, and it is why Roberts is pondering adjustments.
At a person stage, Mookie Betts, Andy Pages, Tommy Edman, and Kiké Hernández — that is virtually half the lineup – have struggled badly. That quartet in opposition to the Blue Jays has mixed for a slash line of simply .147/.203/.162. Regardless of how good the remainder of the lineup has been, it is laborious to attain runs while you’re lugging that round. Particularly, it will be attention-grabbing to see if Roberts adjusts Betts, who’s batted within the No. 2 spot behind leadoff man Shohei Ohtani in each sport of the playoffs and virtually each sport of the common season.
By the sounds of it, Roberts goes to push each button he can to wring extra offense out of a lineup that is been largely tamed by Toronto. That is not precisely an indication of desperation for L.A. — the sequence is tied, in spite of everything — however it’s that issues have to get higher or they threat getting worse for the defending champs.
