The Dodgers are in a hole, and the conversation around them is getting loud.
Down 0-2 to the Brewers in the NLCS, Los Angeles has gone from feeling like the team with the edge after last year’s sweep to staring at the wrong side of a two-game deficit. Game 1 was a tight 2-1 loss.
Game 2 was a back-and-forth game that ended with the Dodgers losing by three. That doesn’t make the series finished - it now shifts to LA, where the Dodgers will try to protect home field - but it does make some of the reactions a lot easier to understand.
The biggest one centers on Shohei Ohtani.
He’s still Shohei Ohtani, the four-time MVP and one of the most feared hitters in baseball when he’s right. But right now, he isn’t right.
After going 2-for-13 in the NLDS, Ohtani is 1-for-7 through the first two games of this series. Overall, he’s 3-for-19 in the postseason with three singles and seven strikeouts.
His last home run came on August 18, and since August 19, he’s hit .157 with no home runs and one RBI while striking out 36 times.
That kind of slump naturally leads to the obvious question: should the Dodgers bench him and give Josue De Paula a shot?
Probably not. Unless Ohtani himself says he can’t play and isn’t close to 100 percent, that move feels unlikely.
More realistic is Los Angeles sliding him lower in the order and hoping the bat wakes up. At the moment, though, that’s more wish than plan.
There’s also plenty of frustration around Will Smith after Game 2.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s night might have looked very different if the Dodgers had challenged a pair of strike calls that went against Brice Turang. In the first inning, Turang eventually doubled and later scored after what appeared to be a strikeout that wasn’t challenged.
Then in the third, Yamamoto seemed to get Turang again on a 3-2 pitch that looked like it clipped the zone, and he even motioned toward Smith to challenge. Smith didn’t.
That would have been the second out of the inning. Instead, the inning kept rolling, William Contreras flied out, Jake Bauers drew a 12-pitch walk, and Christian Yelich followed with a two-run single that knocked Yamamoto out of the game.
Smith can point to the umpire’s call, sure, but both moments felt like challenge opportunities, especially the second one with Yamamoto clearly asking for it. Whether the Dodgers still lose the game is impossible to know. What is clear is that those calls could have extended Yamamoto’s outing and saved Los Angeles from using eight pitchers in Game 2 after already leaning on three relievers in Game 1.
And that matters, because Milwaukee’s bullpen has been nails.
The Brewers already had the best bullpen in the National League during the regular season, and they’ve taken it up another notch in October. They allowed just one earned run in 19 innings against the Padres in the NLDS, then followed that with 9.2 scoreless innings against the Dodgers in the NLCS. Game 2 was especially notable: Milwaukee became the first relief group in MLB history to throw five perfect innings in a postseason game.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers’ offense still hasn’t found its footing. They struggled badly with runners in scoring position in the NLDS, going 1-for-18, and Game 2 didn’t bring much relief. Los Angeles managed only three hits, with Ohtani and Smith both in the middle of the struggles.
So no, the series isn’t over. But if the Dodgers don’t get the lineup moving and don’t get more out of the top of the order, Game 3 on Wednesday in LA could turn into a very uncomfortable night.
In Other News...
Dodgers Make Urgent Game 2 Lineup Change After Costly Missed Chances
After a frustrating Game 1 loss, the Dodgers are making a notable adjustment before Game 2 against the Brewers. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is set to take the ball for Los Angeles, while Milwaukee will counter with right-hander Logan Henderson, and the lineup change reflects a club looking to get more out of an offense that left opportunities on the field the night before.
Freddie Freeman and Will Smith were among the Dodgers hitters who struggled to break through in the opener, adding to the urgency around the rematch. With the series still early and the margin for error already feeling thin, the new batting order is the latest sign that Los Angeles is searching for a better rhythm at the plate before the matchup gets any tougher. [Read more 🡒]
Dodgers May Make A Stunning NLCS Change Against The Brewers
Shohei Ohtanis postseason slump has become one of the bigger subplots around the Dodgers as the National League Championship Series shifts to Game 3 against the Brewers. Ohtani has struggled at the plate in recent months, and the power outage has been especially stark, with no home runs since Aug. 18. For a lineup built around star production, that has put Los Angeles in an uncomfortable spot at exactly the wrong time.
The Dodgers are at least weighing a bold response, with the possibility of sitting Ohtani for Game 3 and using rookie Josue De Paula as the designated hitter instead. No formal decision has been made, but the idea alone speaks to how seriously the club is treating the issue as the series tightens. If Los Angeles does make the move, it would be one of the more surprising calls of the postseason. [Read more 🡒]
Dodgers Face Unthinkable Ohtani Decision At Worst Possible Time
Shohei Ohtanis first season with the Dodgers has reached a delicate stage, with the club weighing whether his recent stretch of struggles and injuries calls for a change in his role. Dave Roberts said he plans to sit down with Ohtani and sort through the best course of action, a sign that the conversation is moving beyond routine maintenance and into something more consequential for a team still trying to balance patience with urgency.
Josue De Paula has surfaced as one possible option to fill the lineup spot if the Dodgers decide Ohtani needs a break, but nothing has been finalized. For now, the situation leaves Los Angeles in an uncomfortable holding pattern, with one of its biggest stars under the microscope and the team trying to decide whether the smartest move is to keep running him out there or make the kind of difficult adjustment no one saw coming. [Read more 🡒]