Dodgers’ offense questions ahead of World Series Game 6

TORONTO — The Dodgers shook up their lineup for Game 5 of the World Series, looking to ignite their slumping bats. Didnâ€t work.

The vaunted Los Angeles offense — the best in the National League all season — has been held squarely in check by Toronto pitching for what essentially amounts to the last three games.

“It seems like at-bats are snowballing on us right now,†said left fielder Kiké Hernández. “Weâ€re getting pitches to hit, weâ€re missing them, and weâ€re expanding the zone with two strikes. I think the best thing that can happen for us is a day off, get a day to regroup and figure it out.â€

Over the past 27 innings, including extras in Mondayâ€s Game 3, the Dodgers have scored a total of four runs. A number of their best hitters are slumping. Theyâ€re running out of time to fix the offense — but hereâ€s how they can do it:

1. Baserunners for Ohtani, protection for Ohtani

The Blue Jays seem to have ditched their plan to simply put Ohtani on base, almost no matter the circumstance. Theyâ€re still pitching around him, though. Which is sensible. Ohtani has a 1.395 OPS this series with three homers.

The Dodgers arenâ€t maximizing Ohtaniâ€s production for two very obvious reasons. They arenâ€t setting the table for him, and they arenâ€t capitalizing behind him. Take a look at what L.A. has gotten from the two spots in its lineup surrounding Ohtani:

Mookie Betts, who has batted second for much of the series, has quite clearly not been good enough. And he knows it.

“I donâ€t want to speak on anybody else,†Betts said Wednesday night. “But for myself, Iâ€ve just been terrible.â€

A Betts resurgence would go a long way toward making the Blue Jays pay for their current plan of attack with Ohtani.

But the No. 9 spot (and, really, the entire bottom of the order) feels just as important. Why can the Blue Jays so readily pitch around Ohtani? Because they never seem to be in any jams when Ohtani comes to the plate. Whoever bats ninth — manager Dave Roberts went with Alex Call over Andy Pages in Game 5 — needs to be a table-setter.

2. Get Gausman up in the zone — and pounce on the fastball

This one is so much easier said than done. Every opponent goes into a Kevin Gausman start with largely the same gameplan. Gausman tunnels his splitter and fastball so well, itâ€s imperative to lay off pitches at the bottom of the zone. (Or at least pitches that look like theyâ€re at the knees before the bottom drops out.)

Heâ€s gettable up in the zone, however, and thatâ€s what the Dodgers did in Game 2. When they finally broke through in the seventh inning, Will Smith and Max Muncy got high fastballs and demolished them for a pair of homers.

“He was really locating the fastball at the bottom of the zone,†Smith said afterward. “You don’t really want to swing at that pitch, with the splitter. We were just trying to get him up. It’s pretty standard. He threw me all fastballs, and I finally get one up in the zone, get a good swing on it.â€

There are no secrets here. The Dodgers have seen plenty of Gausman through the years. Some of their hitters currently mired in the worst slumps have had success against him in the past. Betts, for example, is hitting .306 with an .869 OPS in a not-very-small sample of 53 plate appearances.

3. Another lineup shakeup — but what?

So … after a dud of a Game 5, does the Dodgers†lineup change again?

“Might change it up a little bit,†Roberts said. “Yeah, I’m contemplating, but I’m still kind of up in the air. So it could be a little bit of a change.â€

On Wednesday, Roberts elevated Smith to the No. 2 spot in the order, dropping Betts to No. 3 — a stark reversal to Roberts†ethos for much of the season, in which he kept Betts at 2 despite some major struggles.

Perhaps Betts†numbers against Gausman would give Roberts the opportunity to move him back into the No. 2 spot — a de facto vote of confidence in one of the teamâ€s leaders and most important players. But where does that leave the lineup behind Betts?

“It’s whatever I feel is best to take down Gausman,†Roberts mused after Game 5. “So I’m not sure if it’s Mookie in the 2, Mookie in the 3, Freddie in the 3. I’m not sure. But at the end of the day, regardless of who we run out there or what construct, we still have to take good at-bats, all of us.â€

Good at-bats, you say? Teoscar Hernández has taken plenty of those in this series. Would he move up? Meanwhile, Tommy Edman has struggled. Would he drop lower? Or is there a chance Edman would give way in the lineup entirely for Miguel Rojas, unlikely as that seems? And what about that No. 9 spot — the table-setter-for-Ohtani role?

Indeed, the Dodgers are facing some major questions on offense. Theyâ€re running out of time to find answers.

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