LOS ANGELES -- Shohei Ohtani went from potentially sitting in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series to leading off in Game 4 with the Los Angeles Dodgers' season on the line.

With the Dodgers trailing 3-0 in their best-of-seven series -- the type of deficit only one baseball team has ever overcome -- Ohtani returned to the No. 1 spot in the lineup for Thursday's game, even though the Milwaukee Brewers will start a left-hander in Shane Drohan.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts went into Tuesday's workout planning to give Ohtani at least one game off to rest his body, but he said Ohtani was "adamant" and "convicted" that he was close to figuring something out mechanically and could help the team.

Ohtani responded with some encouraging signs, reaching base via walk and a hit by pitch, lining a 113.5-mph single up the middle and flying out to the opposite field in a 6-2 loss on Wednesday.

When Ohtani returned off the injured list Sept. 23, he platooned with Mookie Betts in the leadoff spot, hitting second against lefties. When the NL Division Series shifted to Atlanta, he moved into the Nos. 4 and 5 spots in the lineup. For Game 3 of the NLCS, he batted sixth, the lowest he had started a game since 2020. Thursday will mark his first time leading off against a lefty since Sept. 2.

Roberts was asked what Ohtani's reaction was to learning where he'd be hitting.

"I didn't tell him," Roberts said with a wry grin. "I just posted the lineup."

The Dodgers have just two extra-base hits in three NLCS games and have just a .572 OPS in these playoffs, which ranks 240th among the 246 teams that have played at least seven games in a single postseason. Nobody has embodied those struggles better than Ohtani, who still hasn't homered since Aug. 18 and has produced just four singles in 22 at-bats in these playoffs.

The Dodgers have continually displayed faith in Ohtani, even though he has often looked helpless in the batter's box this month. But when it came to batting him leadoff for Game 4, there was more to it than that.

"The work, being here till 9 o'clock two nights ago working, the at-bats yesterday -- for me, baking all that in, I felt, 'Absolutely, put him at the top,'" Roberts said. "I feel good about him taking five at-bats and giving us our best chance to win and produce runs today."