Evaders need bats to wake up, otherwise not even Yoshinobu Yamamoto can save them

What does Yoshinobu Yamamoto have in store for his encore?

It might not matter unless his offense wakes up.

With their season on the line in Game 6 of the World Series on Friday night at Rogers Centre, the Dodgers will send Yamamoto to the mound on the heels of consecutive complete-game gems, which should provide some reassurance.

But only to a point, because the Dodgers’ bigger concern as they flew back to Canada was whether their bats would show up again before it was too late.

“It doesn’t feel great,” manager Dave Roberts said. ‘You see it clearly [the Blue Jays] finding ways to get hits, to move baseball forward, and we’re not doing that well. … You still have to use the entire field and take what they give you, and if they don’t allow a slug, then you have to be able to kind of reroute and bat to take competitive at-bats.

“We have that ability. We have to make some adjustments. We’ve seen it.” [Kevin] Gausman a ton, a lot of our guys have seen him, so we just have to come in new. We’ve been in elimination matches, a core group of these guys, and we’ve got to find a way to win a match. That’s it.”

Through five games, the Dodgers are hitting just .201 with a .651 OPS. After taking a 2-1 lead in the series with an 18-inning thriller in Game 3, they went just 10-for-61 (.164) with eight hits and a .465 OPS.

Of course, it’s not entirely a World Series problem for the Dodgers, who Roberts admitted after Game 4 have yet to find their rhythm this postseason. After beating the Reds in the NL wild-card series, they have hit just .214 in the NLDS, NLCS and World Series, averaging just 3.5 runs per game while relying largely on the strength of their starting pitching.

“We gained a lot of confidence [in Yamamoto]but we gotta hit,” Mookie Betts said. “We gotta hit. Yoshi can do his thing, which we obviously need, but we have to hit. There is no other way around it.”

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Betts was one of the Dodgers’ biggest offenders, hitting just .234 with a .648 OPS throughout the entire postseason, including 3-for-23 in the World Series, which led to him dropping to third in the Game 5 lineup.

Max Muncy has hit just .188 with a .693 OPS, including 3-for-20 in the World Series.

And Tommy Edman is hitting .232 with a .646 OPS, including 3-for-21 in the World Series.

“I think [Betts] It’s urgent,” Roberts said. “Hopefully, on the day off, find a way to get away from it, and then go out there and just focus on one game and be good for one game, go out and compete.” But I think you can tell there’s a bit of fear there. But it’s not the first time he’s had a hard time. It’s not the first time he’s been eliminated. And it’s not just Mookie. Everyone must also do their part.”