Andrew Toles was in the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup on Friday night but for the first time in eight starts against a right-handed pitcher, he did not bat leadoff. Toles batted seventh, while Joc Pederson was atop the lineup.
It was Pederson’s 71st career start in the leadoff spot, but only his second since the 2015 season. He batted .216/.325/.437 with nine doubles, 16 home runs and 31 RBI in that position during his rookie year.
This season, Toles is batting .267/.313/.567 with three home runs and five RBI as a leadoff hitter. According to Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made the change with working the pitch count in mind:
“Right now, you’ve got an aggressive hitter in Corey (Seager batting second) and if you have an aggressive hitter in Tolesy you put a little pressure on JT (Justin Turner) to be more passive than maybe he might want to be,” Roberts said. “So I just want to see somebody run counts more and not have Tolesy change his approach because that’s who he is and we like his aggressiveness.”
Pederson went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored prior to being pinch-hit for by Brett Eibner. Pederson singled on the third pitch of his first at-bat, saw five pitches and grounded out in his second, doubled on the second pitch in his third at-bat, and popped-out on nine pitches in final plate appearance.
Toles saw a total of 20 pitches across his four at-bats in Friday’s loss, going 1-for-4 with an RBI single and strikeout.
