Manager Dave Roberts, in a strategic reshuffling of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup for Tuesday night’s pivotal Game 3 of the NL Division Series against the Atlanta Braves, relocated designated hitter Shohei Ohtani to the No. 5 spot.

Roberts characterized the move as a one-game adjustment designed to afford the Dodgers a different look against Braves left-hander Chris Sale.

When Sale shut out Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Dodgers 1-0 on Aug. 26, Ohtani was 0 for 4 with two strikeouts.

For his career, Ohtani is 3 for 15 with no homers and 1 RBI against Sale.

With the best-of-five series knotted at one game apiece, Roberts has installed Mookie Betts atop the order and Freddie Freeman in the second slot for Tuesday night.

The No. 5 position represents the nadir of Ohtani's placement in the batting order since 2020, when he was with the Angels.

"We all apprehend that Sale's going to be formidable," Roberts said.

"But the fellows I perceive at the top have a sound opportunity to reach base, and I do believe there will be occasions where the game, the situation, bleeds into Shohei's at-bat."

Ohtani, a left-handed batter, occupied the second slot in the batting order during the Braves’ 3-2 triumph in Los Angeles on Sunday night, thereby levelling the series.

Roberts recounted that he had conferred with Ohtani on Monday night concerning the lineup adjustment, appending that the four-time MVP “completely understood.”

Roberts further remarked: “Ohtani said, ‘I was going to come to you in September and say, why don’t you hit me seventh?’ My point being, he wants to do whatever will help the team.

So I feel good about this today.

And it’s nothing as a sign of what’s more to come.

It’s just for today specifically.”

Ohtani concluded the regular season with a .275 batting average, 30 home runs, and 81 RBIs.

Across the series' first two games, he amassed two hits and two strikeouts over eight at-bats.

Following a fortnight-long absence occasioned by persistent right biceps and left knee complaints, Ohtani took the field for the final five contests of the regular season, during which he mustered five hits in twenty-one at-bats, alongside an extra-base hit, eight strikeouts and a walk.

Roberts acknowledged that Ohtani has been chasing pitches in his endeavor to rediscover his stroke and will continue to be offered pitches off the plate “until he shows some restraint.”

Roberts said he does not anticipate Ohtani batting fifth in Wednesday’s Game 4 against Braves right-hander Tyler Mahle.

“I simply feel this affords us the optimal opportunity to prevail over the Braves today and to contend with Sale, to contend with whatever they intend to deploy following Sale,” Roberts said.

“And I feel good about it.”

Roberts characterized the lineup adjustment as “not a lack of confidence in any player.

It’s more of what I feel gives us the best chance to win today.

And then that’s, in a short series, that’s the mindset that everyone has to have.”

Ohtani is scarcely the sole high-profile hitter to have foundered in the series and the postseason.

Braves slugger Ronald Acuña Jr. has gone a mere 3 for 18 in the postseason, homerless, and is 2 for 9 across the first two games of the series.

Although Atlanta manager Walt Weiss has not displaced Acuña from his No. 2 slot in the lineup, he did slide him from right field to designated hitter in a late lineup change.

Lane Thomas entered the lineup in right field.

“I merely think it’s the ebbs and flows of a season in which players run hot and cold,” Weiss said Tuesday of Acuña’s slump.

“And the selfsame phenomenon manifests itself in the postseason.

He is one of those individuals who is perpetually a single swing away from accomplishing something truly spectacular.

So I don’t endeavor to overthink it unduly.

It is bound to happen at some juncture.”

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