Shohei Ohtani has struggled so mightily that the Los Angeles Dodgers actually considered benching him for Game 3 of the NLCS with the team already down in the series two games to none against the Milwaukee Brewers. Well, manager Dave Roberts revealed that Ohtani will be in the lineup and that the four-time MVP winner is "adamant" that he's close to turning things around.
Dave Roberts said Shohei Ohtani will be in the lineup for Game 3. Said Ohtani is “adamant” he’s close to turning it around.
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) October 13, 2026
“He was very convicted that he was on to something mechanically.”
Whether Ohtani should be in the lineup can be debated, but that's a moot point right now. All we can do is wonder what the Dodgers will do lineup-wise with Ohtani and a team full of struggling stars. We're going to take our best shot at what they should do.
Ideal Dodgers NLCS Game 3 lineup has Shohei Ohtani towards the bottom
Player | Position |
|---|---|
1. Mookie Betts | SS |
2. Andy Pages | CF |
3. Kyle Tucker | RF |
4. Teoscar Hernandez | LF |
5. Freddie Freeman | 1B |
6. Will Smith | C |
7. Shohei Ohtani | DH |
8. Tommy Edman | 2B |
9. Kiké Hernandez | 3B |
We're shaking things up, baby. Will having Andy Pages hit second work? I don't know. He's gone just 1-for-6 in the NLCS and has not been productive at the plate at all in his postseason career, but he has gone 4-for-5 with a home run and a double against Milwaukee's Game 3 starter, Robert Gasser. Perhaps Pages can light a spark at the top of the order behind Mookie Betts, who, at the very least, has been getting on base this series. .
Behind Pages is Kyle Tucker, who might've had a rough first season with the Dodgers, but has hit .300 with an .891 OPS in the postseason, and has good numbers against Gasser (3-for-6 with a triple and a home run). Teoscar Hernandez, an outfielder who crushes lefties, hits behind Tucker, with postseason legend Freddie Freeman behind him.
Two spots below Freeman is the man of the hour, Shohei Ohtani, who has not hit seventh in a game he's started since his rookie year back in 2018. Hitting a player of Ohtani's stature that low is unprecedented, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Dodgers must move Shohei Ohtani down in the order for NLCS Game 3
I can understand the Dodgers feeling the need to play Ohtani. He's the best player on the planet when healthy by a wide margin, and he's led them to back-to-back World Series titles. However, if the Dodgers are set on playing him, in no way should he be hitting clean-up, as he has done in each of the Dodgers' last three games.
Ohtani has gone 1-for-7 with three strikeouts in this series, and 3-for-20 with seven strikeouts overall this postseason. Most alarmingly, Ohtani has a grand total of zero home runs and one RBI since August 19 in over 100 plate appearances when combining the regular season and the postseason. This version of Ohtani is not the Ohtani who earned a $700 million contract from the Dodgers.
Is Ohtani actually close to figuring it out offensively? The Dodgers sure hope so. They need him to hit if they're going to find a way to get past the Brewers. It's on Ohtani to prove it, though. Hitting him in the middle of the order won't help them if he continues to scuffle. Moving him down is tough, given all he's accomplished and that this lineup as a whole hasn't done much, but it's what must be done at this point. Sticking with the status quo is asking for this series to end sooner rather than later.
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