Dodgers pull a surprise mid-series move with Shohei Ohtani

The Los Angeles Dodgers can no longer look away from Shohei Ohtani’s struggles.

The Dodgers are dropping Ohtani down to fifth in their batting order for Tuesday’s NLDS Game 3 against the Atlanta Braves. The team announced that Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernandez, and Will Smith will all now be hitting in front of Ohtani.

The four-time MVP Ohtani has been hampered by knee and biceps injuries that even required a stint on the injured list last month. As a result, he had a down regular season (by his standards), batting .275 with 30 home runs and 81 RBIs through 135 total games.

Ohtani’s struggles have continued into the playoffs as well. Through the Dodgers’ first two games against Atlanta, Ohtani has gone 2-for-8 with two strikeouts and zero extra-base hits.

The 32-year-old Ohtani, who is also notably not pitching this postseason, was the Dodgers’ leadoff hitter for almost the entire regular season. But he went down to No. 2 behind Betts to begin the NLDS and is now being demoted all the way down to No. 5.

The Braves won Game 2 over the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif. to even the series at 1-1 and put themselves in the driver’s seat heading back to Atlanta. Now the Dodgers are tinkering with their batting order in response at the expense of Ohtani (a disappointing development after Ohtani seemed to be making good progress while on the IL).