There was a shakeup in the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup for Tuesday’s game against the Colorado Rockies, with Mookie Betts dropped from hitting second to the cleanup spot. That coincided with Andy Pages ascending up the order to hit second.
“For me, you see he’s not swinging well. You see there’s a little bit more anxiousness, tentativeness. For me, it’s just to kind of give him a different look,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explained before the game. “When you’re hitting at the top of the order and you’re taking on five at-bats in a night and you’re not swinging well, it can be a lot to take on.
“So I feel that moving him down a couple slots just gives him a different look. Look forward to taking four at-bats and make the most of it.”
Mookie Betts downplays lineup change
Betts has struggled at the plate since being activated from the injured list on May 11, with a .122 batting average in 49 at-bats entering Tuesday. The early results from the change were promising as Betts hit two home runs, including one in his first at-bat of the night.
However, he stopped short of crediting that success to hitting from a different spot in the Dodgers’ order.
“Um, no. I don’t think that has anything to do with anything,” Betts said. “I think it’s just work. As long as you put in work, it doesn’t matter if I’m hitting ninth, first or wherever. It’s the same work. Pretty much put it to that.”
The 33-year-old has endured some difficult challenges since the middle of the 2024 season. He suffered a fractured left hand that year, then dealt with an illness last season that sapped a significant amount of his strength. Betts also suffered a toe fracture last year and then a right oblique strain just eight games into the 2026 season.
What Betts did align with Roberts on was the manager’s assessment that his hitting woes were because of a mechanics issue, much like some of the team’s other players who have struggled.
“Yeah, absolutely. It was a mechanical thing. That’s exactly right,” Betts said. “It was a mechanical thing and I had to fix the mechanical thing. I was able to fix it and it finally translated to the game.”
And because Betts believes his troubles were rooted in swing mechanics, there’s an expectation of having solved the matter in some regard.
“I have a directive and know exactly what I need to do every day. That doesn’t mean it’s going to translate into hits, but I know exactly how to train my body, train my mind, to let it translate to the field now,” Betts explained.
Andy Pages batting second
Early on into the 2026 campaign, Roberts said Pages had earned his trust to hit in the top third of the lineup but there were other factors to consider when evaluating potential shuffling.
“I like Andy’s at-bats. I think just to break up the two lefties — Shohei (Ohtani) and Freddie (Freeman) — I thought was helpful. And that’s kind of the basis of it,” Roberts said of having Pages batting second. “I like the way he’s going about his at-bats recently.”
Although the 25-year-old isn’t hitting the cover off the ball in the same way he was through the first month of the season, he still has the third-best wRC+ on the team, behind Max Muncy and Shohei Ohtani. Similar to Betts, Pages immediately produced from his new spot by going 4-for-5 with a double, home run and three RBI.
Roberts said he has Pages penciled in for the same spot on Wednesday and will re-evaluate from there.
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