The Chicago Cubs are heading to Los Angeles with their series tied against the Dodgers at one game apiece, but as the team prepares for Game 3 on Tuesday night, there are plenty of questions to be asked about how Joe Maddon plans on structuring his lineup.

Even though the Cubs have scored five or more runs in four of their six playoff games (including their 8-4 Game 1 win over the Dodgers), there are still reasons for concern when looking at the performances of several key hitters.

The man everyone turns to immediately when dissecting the issues surrounding the lineup is Anthony Rizzo, who has just one hit in 23 postseason at-bats since the playoffs began. Cubs shortstop Addison Russell isn’t doing much better, as he has one hit in 22 at-bats, good for a .045 batting average.

Three other frequent starters for the Cubs are also batting below .200 in the postseason, as Ben Zobrist (.182), Jason Heyward (.111), and Dexter Fowler (.167) have all struggled at the plate despite the Cubs’ overall successes on the field.

With all of those bad numbers, it would be understandable if Maddon wanted to elevate certain guys up in the batting order. Javier Baez would certainly qualify as a potential candidate, as he has 14 total bases and a .391 batting average in 23 at-bats so far in the postseason. Willson Contreras could also make an argument for more playing time, as he’s batting .556 and has two RBI despite being limited to just nine at-bats so far in the playoffs.

Even with all of those numbers to impress Maddon, there are a few significant road blocks to him just deciding to make wholesale changes to his lineup.

There is an argument to be made that moving Baez to shortstop would minimize the impact of losing Russell’s defense at the position if Maddon wanted to rest him, but the move would then also require Zobrist to come back to second base, thus weakening the Cubs’ infield defense in a spot where it has been insanely good during the playoffs.

The move would also mean potentially weakening outfield defense with Jorge Soler in left field, but the Cubs could conceivably go with Albert Almora instead, thus potentially alleviating at least some of the defensive concerns there.

The other argument to be made is that there is always a degree of ebb and flow when it comes to how effective players are at the plate. Especially in the case of a guy like Rizzo, he is a very streaky hitter at times, and he just so happens to be in a lull at an inopportune time.

That ebb and flow is exacerbated in the postseason, as teams face higher-quality pitching than they’re used to on a daily basis in the regular season, and with the quality of competition going up, slumps tend to start and be difficult to stop.

With all of that being said, it’s likely too early to start panicking and changing things around in the order. Moving Baez up in the lineup wouldn’t necessarily be a bad idea, but moving Russell out of the mix in order to get a fresh bat and facilitate that change is likely a bad course of action, especially in a spacious ballpark like Dodger Stadium.

Shuffling guys like Russell out and guys like Rizzo down would also be a panic move for a team that has built its entire mantra, its entire essence on recognizing that baseball has to be played one game at a time, and if you start to think about the pressure of the moment or where you’re at in a best-of-seven series, you lose that edge and you allow all sorts of negative emotions come out of the woodwork in a tsunami that can sweep away even the best of teams.

Should the Cubs think about giving Baez a few more at-bats here and there? Sure. Do the Cubs need to collectively hit better to increase their chances of winning? It couldn’t hurt. The notion that something drastic needs to be done is a misguided one, and would go against everything that Maddon and the front office have instilled in this team from the moment they turned the corner from rebuilding to contending.