Pages, Rushing and more keying huge start for bottom of Dodgers' order
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Shohei Ohtani has still been … well … Shohei Ohtani to begin 2026. He’s carrying a 48-game on-base streak with five home runs and a .910 OPS. But $240 million offseason acquisition Kyle Tucker is still finding his footing, and former MVP Mookie Betts is on the injured list with a right oblique strain.
Yet, the Dodgers have started 14-4, the best record in Major League Baseball. That’s what an embarrassment of riches looks like -- your superstars aren’t quite there yet and you can still string together wins.
But this specific depth corps is on a historic pace.
Dodgers hitters in the 7-8-9 spots are slashing .328/.385/.550 with a 160 wRC+ -- a stat that measures offensive production based on a league-wide, park-adjusted average of 100.
Sure, it’s still a small sample size, but that .935 OPS is the highest in a team’s first 18 games since the 2011 Yankees (.950). It would also shatter the full-season record for a bottom third of the order across a full season in the Expansion Era (1961), topping the 2003 Red Sox (.838) by nearly 100 points.
A .328 batting average would be 39 points higher than the 1996 Yankees (.289) and a .385 OBP would be 29 points higher than the 1977 White Sox (.356). And finally -- whether sustainable or not -- the Dodgers’ 2026 bottom of the order is on pace for 90 home runs, which would clear the 2019 Twins’ high mark of 85.
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Much of that has to do with sensation Andy Pages, who has built on a 3.8 Baseball-Reference WAR breakout in 2025. He’s leading MLB with a .409 batting average and is fourth with an 1.148 OPS.
But backup catcher Dalton Rushing, veteran infielder Miguel Rojas, Betts replacement Hyeseong Kim, stalwart Max Muncy and others have also contributed significantly.
Rushing -- DHing during a rare night off at the plate for Ohtani -- hit a clutch grand slam against the Mets on Wednesday. It was already his fourth big fly of the year, bringing his slugging percentage to 1.353 in five games.
“[Ohtani] told me to hit a homer for him,” Rushing said. “And I guess it worked out.”
Maybe it really is as easy as that for the two-time reigning World Series champs.