For weeks, the top of the Dodgers’ lineup card might as well have been laminated. Same four names, same order, night after night. Then came a doubleheader, a Sunday night heartbreaker against the Yankees, and a cross-country flight to Philadelphia — and Dave Roberts finally got out the eraser.
Shohei Ohtani still leads off as the designated hitter, and Andy Pages remains in the two-hole. Everything after that is new. Tommy Edman jumps to third base and the No. 3 slot, giving Max Muncy a breather after the twin bill. Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts each slide down a spot to fourth and fifth, respectively. Miguel Rojas stays at sixth and second base, Teoscar Hernández bats seventh in left, Alex Call covers right field so Kyle Tucker can rest, and Dalton Rushing returns behind the plate after sitting the Yankees finale.
The Dodgers (63-37) rolled into Citizens Bank Park having taken two of three from the Yankees in the Bronx, dropping the finale 2-1 on Sunday night. The Phillies (55-45) waited on the other side with the kind of arm that makes a lineup shuffle look less like tinkering and more like survival instinct.
Cristopher Sánchez — 11-4, 2.62 ERA, 144 strikeouts across 127.1 innings, NL All-Star, Cy Young contender for the second straight year after finishing runner-up to Paul Skenes in 2024 — gets the ball for Philadelphia. The Dodgers saw him twice in last October’s NLDS and won both games. That was then. This Sánchez has been a different animal through 20 starts, carving through lineups with a devastating changeup and the kind of run support that turns 11-4 into a comfortable 11-4.
Emmet Sheehan (4-6, 4.81 ERA) counters for Los Angeles, making his first start since the All-Star break. He was originally slated for the second game of the Yankees series but got pushed back after Saturday’s rainout. The extra rest did him no harm: in two July outings, Sheehan has allowed just three earned runs across 9.2 innings, a sharp correction from a June that tested the Dodgers’ patience. Still, asking him to out-duel Sánchez on the road — in a park that rewards aggressive lineups and punishes mistakes — is a tall order for a pitcher still finding his post-break footing.
The lineup changes tell their own story. Edman at third is the headline move — a utility player bumped into a premium spot against a Cy Young candidate, because Muncy’s legs needed it and Roberts trusts the bat. Betts dropping to fifth is the quiet one. He’s been grinding, and the drop is as much about protecting him as it is about lengthening the order. Call in for Tucker is pure rotation, a day off that the schedule finally permitted.
First pitch is 7:10 p.m. ET on ESPN. The Dodgers have the best record in baseball and a lineup deep enough to absorb a shuffle. The Phillies have the starter. Sánchez has been the best pitcher in the National League not named Skenes for two years running, and Citizens Bank Park in July is not where visiting lineups go to find themselves.
If Sheehan gives them five competitive innings, the Dodgers’ bullpen and the top of that order — reshuffled or not — can flip this into a coin flip. If he doesn’t, Sánchez won’t need much help.