Back to basics: Ohtani returns to leadoff spot for NLCS Game 4

LOS ANGELES -- With their season on the line, the Dodgers are going back to their roots.

Shohei Ohtani was in the leadoff spot for the first time this postseason as the Dodgers shook up their lineup ahead of Game 4 of the NL Championship Series against the Brewers on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, a game they must win to keep their season -- and their three-peat bid -- alive.

Ohtani dropped as low as sixth in the order in NLCS Game 3, when a scuffling Will Smith also dropped to seventh. Both contributed to the Dodgers' lone run-scoring rally in the sixth inning, with Ohtani drawing a walk to load the bases before Smith cashed in with a two-run double. Two innings later, Ohtani smoked a 113.5 mph single, his hardest-hit batted ball since June 20.

The big plate appearances from Ohtani and Smith, as well as the work they have put in behind the scenes, were enough to convince manager Dave Roberts to elevate both of them back up the order.

"I think getting back to what we've done all year and how it's been going recently as far as on the offense," Roberts said, "I think it warranted just a little bit of a shakeup."

Here's the full lineup:

1. Shohei Ohtani, DH
2. Mookie Betts, SS
3. Freddie Freeman, 1B
4. Will Smith, C
5. Kyle Tucker, RF
6. Teoscar Hernández, LF
7. Miguel Rojas, 2B
8. Andy Pages, CF
9. Kiké Hernández, 3B

The Dodgers are trying to do what just one other team has done before: Come back from being down 0-3 in a best-of-seven postseason series. Of the 42 teams that have been in that position, only Roberts' 2004 Red Sox have successfully come back to win the series. Thirty-two of those series ended in sweeps.

Roberts' advice to his team is to focus solely on winning Game 4. They can't look at the big picture of needing four wins in as many games. They need to win each pitch, each inning and each day for as long as their season is alive.

Having Ohtani back atop the order, Roberts hopes, will put the Dodgers in the best position to do that. Ohtani is hitting 4-for-22 (.182) with no extra-base hits, seven strikeouts and four walks in seven games this postseason. There was a discussion about sitting him for Game 3 amid his lingering right biceps and left knee injuries, but Ohtani was adamant that he felt good enough to play and was close to figuring something out with his swing.

The reasoning for Ohtani's return to the leadoff spot a game later is twofold: He showed Roberts enough through his work and in Game 3. And if this is it for the Dodgers' postseason run, Roberts wants to go down trusting his generational talent to set the tone.

"There is something to that, absolutely," Roberts said. "But also I think the player still has to give you hope to believe in, to bet on -- where I think that the work, being here till 9 p.m. two nights ago working, the at-bats yesterday. For me baking all that in, I felt absolutely, put him at the top."