The Los Angeles Dodgers arrived in Atlanta for Game 3 of the National League Division Series with the series level at one game apiece and with a batting order that looked nothing like the one they carried through the first two games at Dodger Stadium.
Manager Dave Roberts moved Shohei Ohtani from the second spot down to fifth, the lowest the two-way star has started in a lineup since September 23, 2020, when he was still with the Angels.
The shift is part of a broader rearrangement aimed at left-hander Chris Sale, who starts for the Braves on Tuesday night at Truist Park.
Los Angeles stacked right-handed bats through the top of the order and changed two positions. Mookie Betts leads off at shortstop, Freddie Freeman bats second at first base, Teoscar Hernández hits third in left field, and Will Smith cleans up behind the plate. Ohtani is the designated hitter in the five-hole. Miguel Rojas follows at second base, Andy Pages is in center, Kyle Tucker is in right, and Kiké Hernández makes his first start of this postseason at third.
Max Muncy and Tommy Edman are out of the lineup.
Roberts had hinted at the changes on Monday’s off day, and the early series gave him reason to act. Ohtani is 2-for-8 through two games.
He has also expanded his chase rate, swinging at pitches outside the zone about 43 percent of the time in this series after doing so around 30 percent during the regular season.
Sale has held him to 3-for-15 in prior meetings, so dropping him also reduces how often the two are likely to face each other. Ohtani is still working back from right biceps and left knee issues.
He finished the regular season with 30 home runs, 81 runs batted in, and a .275 average in 135 games, numbers that explain why the Dodgers still need him in the middle of the order rather than on the bench.
The series itself has been tight. Los Angeles took Game 1, 5-3. Atlanta answered in Game 2, 3-2, with a bullpen game that limited the Dodgers to one run. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. Eastern on FS1.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, last year’s World Series MVP, makes his 2026 postseason debut opposite Sale. Yamamoto went 14-9 with a 2.53 ERA in the regular season.
Sale matched the win total and posted a 2.16 ERA with 200 strikeouts. The two already met at Truist Park on August 27, when Sale threw a complete-game shutout in a 1-0 Braves win, the only run coming on a Drake Baldwin homer.
A win on Tuesday would put either club one victory from the National League Championship Series.
For the Dodgers, that path now runs through a reordered lineup and a bet that Ohtani can do more damage lower in the order than he has so far at the top of it.
