Down 0-2 heading home, Dodgers look to ignite stagnant offense

It's no secret why the Dodgers trail the Red Sox 2-0 as the World Series shifts to Los Angeles for the next three games:

The Dodgers haven't hit a lick.

After falling 4-2 in Game 2 — when both of the Dodgers' runs and all three of their hits came in one inning, the fourth — Los Angeles is now batting .175 (11 for 63) for the Series.

"We've got to find a way to win a baseball game," said manager Dave Roberts. "I think coming in here, I thought we played these guys pretty straight up. Obviously, we come out of here going home down 2-0. But they made pitches when they needed to. And when we stressed them, they made the pitch. And then when it flipped, they got the hit, and we didn't.

"I think as far as ballclub, talent, you can kind of look at the pitching, the offense ... we're not swinging the bats well right now. That's obvious. But I think getting home, seeing their guys in the pen, I think we'll be ready for Game 3."

During the regular season, the Dodgers led the National League in OPS (.774), slugging (.442) and home runs (235).

So far in this series, the Dodgers have an OPS of .462, are slugging .222 and have hit one home run.

"I think you have to give credit to their pitchers, their bullpen has been very good," said Chris Taylor, who is 0 for 5 with three strikeouts. "They’ve done a really good job I feel like — we haven’t gotten a whole lot to hit — but we just have to keep grinding. We’ve been right in the games, we just couldn't finish the deal."

The Dodgers were able to take their first lead of the Series on Yasiel Puig's fourth-inning RBI single. But that was also their last hit of the ballgame.

After loading the bases against David Price with no outs, the Dodgers could only manage a sacrifice fly and Puig's hit. After that, Dodgers hitters were 0-for-16 with four strikeouts.

"They’re really good," said Matt Kemp. "I think they’ve scored most of their runs with two outs. They’re getting guys on base and those big hits when we’ve needed them. We need to try to do the same thing. We had bases loaded, we had a chance to have a bigger inning than what we did and we kind of didn’t take advantage of that."

Roberts said he will have a different lineup for Game 3 on Friday night with right-hander Rick Porcello going after Boston started two lefties in the first two games.

"As far as at the top, Justin Turner has been at the top, second or third, all year long. There's no reason to move him," Roberts said. "And I think Brian Dozier against a lefty, these first two games, I thought his at-bat quality was pretty good. And so now you're looking at Manny (Machado), who I think has had some good at-bats. And David Freese in the 3, I think he's probably had our best at-bats top to bottom in these first two games.

"But we're going to shuffle it up for Game 3, but it's not because of necessarily performance, it's kind of who the starting pitcher for those guys is. But these are the guys that got us here, and we're going to ride them out."

Because Boston started southpaws Chris Sale and David Price in the first two games, Roberts brought all four of his top home-run hitters (Max Muncy, Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson and Yasmani Grandal) off the bench. The collective results from replacements Freese, Dozier, Taylor and Kike Hernandez have obviously not been there, but Roberts wasn't second-guessing his team's approach.

"Well, David Freese, I think he's done everything that we've asked of him," Roberts said. "I think Brian Dozier, the quality has been there. I don't think the results( have been). He's got a couple of walks in these first two games. This is two games and obviously, it's magnified, it's the World Series, but it's still two separate baseball games. I think that Taylor and Hernandez didn't swing the bat well these two games. I think CT has had a really good postseason.

"But, yeah, it's hard to have guys that slug like Pederson, Muncy, Bellinger on the bench, but this is something that we've done a lot in September and throughout the postseason and it's proved to be successful. And those guys are still getting in games and staying current. But, again, when guys are in there, they've just got to be productive. So we've got a lot of good players and we've got a long way to go."

Only 16 percent of teams who lost the first two games have gone on to win the World Series.

"We’ve got a tough road ahead of us, man," Kemp said. "That’s a good team over there that beat us two games. We’ve had our chances to win both games and they kind of outscored us. So turn the page and keep going.

"Winning the World Series, especially against a team like them, is hard. We never quit. Yeah, we’re down 2-0 but we’re going to stay positive but we’re about to go home and hopefully win three games."