New-look Dodgers lineup only produces 4 hits but they come at right time as LA forces Game 7

TORONTO (AP) — A new-look lineup for the Los Angeles Dodgers only produced four hits in Game 6, but three of them came in a three-run rally off Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman.

Tommy Edman hit a one-out double off Gausman in the third inning and scored on Will Smith’s two-out double into the left field corner.

One batter later, Mookie Betts delivered the Dodgers’ biggest hit of the night, grounding a two-run single between third base and shortstop. The RBIs were his first of the World Series.

“We talked about letting the game come to him a little bit and he got a huge hit for us,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Two-way star Shohei Ohtani had the only other hit for Los Angeles, a one-out double off Mason Fluharty in the eighth.

Betts was dropped to the cleanup spot Friday. He hadn’t hit as low as fourth since the final game of the 2017 American League Division Series with Boston against Houston.

When he batted third on Wednesday, it was the first time since 2021 that Betts started but wasn’t in one of the top two spots in Los Angeles’ lineup.

Betts said he doesn’t mind where Roberts writes his name on the lineup card.

“He could hit me seventh, I don’t care,” Betts said after a 3-1 win that pushed the Series to the limit. “I just want to win. Whatever we do, however we get there, I’ll jump on whoever’s back to go. We all get a ring, that’s all I care about.”

Betts finished 1 for 3. He’s 4 for 26 in the World Series.

Smith hit second for the second straight game, and Freddie Freeman moved up from fourth to third.

Tommy Edman moved from second base to center field, his first outfield start this postseason, and batted eighth. Miguel Rojas made his first start of the World Series at second base, batting ninth.

Rojas helped the Dodgers escape a jam in the ninth by doubling Addison Barger off second base to end the game. Rojas caught a short-hopped throw from left fielder Kiké Hernandez for the final out.

“First off, Miggy played the heck out of second base and made some huge plays,” Roberts said. “We were hoping for that kind of energy infusion tonight. We got that from Miggy.”

Roberts said he’d likely use the same lineup in Saturday’s decisive Game 7.

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“I kind of like what we were doing, yeah,” he said.

The Dodgers shuffled their lineup before Game 5 but had just four hits in a 6-1 loss. Los Angeles had six hits in a 6-2 defeat in Game 4.

With four hits in 31 at-bats Friday, the Dodgers saw their their team batting average this postseason drop to .230. Los Angeles is hitting .191 in the World Series (42 for 220) and has 67 strikeouts.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB