Mattingly considering change in batting order

ST. LOUIS -- Despite four home runs for the Dodgers in Game 5, manager Don Mattingly hinted at a change in the batting order for Friday's Game 6.

Mattingly was asked if he was concerned that with left-handed hitters Adrian Gonzalez and Andre Ethier batting fourth and fifth, his offense would be vulnerable in the late innings against left-handed relievers Randy Choate and Kevin Siegrist.

"Yeah, we've talked about it a little bit," Mattingly said. "I've looked at a couple different ways to do that. The one thing I've liked about it is that we've seen they've pitched to Adrian. When we have Yasiel [Puig] back there with the right- handers, they were going straight to Yasiel and kind of doing that.

"Since we've put Andre back there, we've seen [Adam] Wainwright pitch to him. Andre has pretty good numbers off him. It seems like they have a little bit more fear right now of Andre with their righties than they do of Yasiel. So really that was a move more to protect Adrian. But there is possibly a way to do it, still protecting Adrian. We're talking about something a little bit different."

Among the options are to drop the ailing Hanley Ramirez out of the No. 3 spot and move up Puig or A.J. Ellis.