After Dodgers manager Don Mattingly declared that both players would be game-time decisions for Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, Ramirez and Ethier showed enough in pregame drills to earn a spot in the starting lineup against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Ethier could be a particularly important weapon today against Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright. Only five Dodgers have as many as 10 career plate appearances against the right-hander, and Ethier leads them all in batting average (.303), on-base percentage (.361) and slugging percentage (.667). He’s batting fifth.
Ramirez is 5 for 24 (.208) with no extra-base hits in his career against Wainwright, and went 0 for 6 in Game 1 against the Cardinals. He was the Dodgers’ best hitter in the National League Division Series against the Braves, batting .500 (8 for 16) with four doubles, a triple and a home run. He’s batting third.
Yasiel Puig is batting sixth, his lowest position in a starting lineup since he joined the Dodgers in June. Puig has struck out six times in 10 at-bats in the NLCS without collecting a hit. Wainwright has been tough on right-handers throughout his career; this season alone right-handers have struck out 111 times in 457 at-bats against Wainwright and walked only 10 times.
Puig went 1 for 3 with a double and two strikeouts in his only game against Wainwright this season.
For the Cardinals, Matt Adams moves from the cleanup spot to number six, where he’s been against left-handers Francisco Liriano and Clayton Kershaw in these playoffs. Yadier Molina beats fourth.
Here are the lineups for both teams:
Dodgers:
Carl Crawford LF
Mark Ellis 2B
Hanley Ramirez SS
Adrian Gonzalez 1B
Andre Ethier CF
Yasiel Puig RF
Juan Uribe 3B
A.J. Ellis C
Hyun-Jin Ryu P
Cardinals:
Matt Carpenter 2B
Carlos Beltran RF
Matt Holliday LF
Yadier Molina C
David Freese 3B
Matt Adams 1B
Jon Jay CF
Pete Kozma SS
Adam Wainwright P