The Los Angeles Dodgers arrive in Atlanta for Game 3 of the National League Division Series with the series knotted at one game apiece, and manager Dave Roberts has reshuffled the batting order in a way that puts Freddie Freeman in a more prominent role.
The change comes ahead of a Tuesday night matchup at Truist Park, where the Braves will send left-hander Chris Sale to the mound against right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a pairing that figures among the sharper pitching duels of the early postseason.
Roberts’s adjustment centers on Shohei Ohtani, who has gone cold at the plate. Rather than leave the designated hitter in a spot near the top of the order, Roberts dropped him to fifth, via Underdog MLB.
That opened the second spot for Freeman, who had been batting cleanup. Mookie Betts stays in the leadoff position at shortstop. Teoscar Hernández follows Freeman in left field, and catcher Will Smith bats fourth, so the first four hitters are a familiar core with one notable reordering.
The bottom half of the card stays close to recent versions, with one exception: Andy Pages returns to the lineup in center field.
The posted order has Betts at shortstop, Freeman at first base, Hernández in left, Smith behind the plate, Ohtani as the designated hitter, Miguel Rojas at second, Pages in center, Kyle Tucker in right, and Enrique Hernández at third, with Yamamoto starting.
It is a modest tweak on paper, but it places Freeman, the club’s steadiest early bat in this series, where he can see more pitches before the heart of the order and where a hit can set the table for Hernández and Smith rather than arrive after them.
Through two games against his former club, Freeman has three hits in seven at-bats, two of them on Sunday, including a solo home run in the fourth inning of Game 2 at Dodger Stadium.
That production stands out on a roster still searching for a consistent offensive rhythm.
Freeman spent the first twelve years of his career in Atlanta and became one of the franchise’s defining players before signing with Los Angeles.
The next two games, if the series reaches that far, will be played in the park he called home for more than a decade.
Roberts has not framed the move as a permanent rewrite of the order so much as a response to the series as it stands.
Ohtani remains in the middle of the lineup, where a single swing can still change an inning, while Freeman’s early contact gives the Dodgers a different look against Sale.
With the best-of-five series even and both teams returning to Atlanta, the order is one of the few levers Los Angeles can pull before first pitch.
