Los Angeles trails Milwaukee 3-0 in the series and needs four straight wins to reach the World Series.
Shohei Ohtani is back at the top of the Dodgers' lineup for Game 4 of the NLCS, after manager Dave Roberts dropped him to sixth for Game 3's 6-2 loss. That experiment produced a 1 for 2 night with a walk, which nudged his batting average up to .182, but it wasn't enough to avoid falling behind 3-0 in the best-of-seven series against the Brewers.
Ohtani's postseason has been rough by his standards. He hasn't homered since coming back late in the regular season from injury, and he still doesn't have an extra-base hit or an RBI this October.
Roberts explained the move by pointing to Ohtani's recent work rather than his results. "Just seeing the work the last couple days, I like where his head is at," Roberts said. "I liked the at-bats yesterday. Obviously we haven't performed the way that we're capable of, so to kind of shake it up a little bit but something that's of somewhat normalcy that our guys are used to."
The Dodgers are trying to stave off elimination and keep their bid for a third straight championship alive, which means Game 4 is essentially a must-win.