Dodgers' Mookie Betts gets brutally honest on going hitless in last 22 playoff at-bats
Today at 09:44 AM
Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts is one of the best players in baseball, but he is in the middle of a long slump when it comes to the playoffs, as he is now 2-for-31 in the team’s last three postseason series, and is hitless in his last 22 playoff at-bats. During an off day on Monday, Betts took around 400 swings during a workout at Petco Park, saying that is the only way he can try to work out of this.
“If there’s another way, please let me know,” Mookie Betts said, via Alden Gonzalez of ESPN. “… If I turn my brain off, it’s going to get worse. I have to keep trying.”
Betts’ slump, combined with the uncertain status of first baseman Freddie Freeman, who left the Game 2 loss to the Padres with an ankle injury, provides some pause for the Dodgers. The series is tied at one heading into Game 3 in San Diego on Tuesday, and Los Angeles is turning to Walker Buehler to go up against Michael King. The Dodgers need their top bats to show up. Shohei Ohtani showed up in Game 1, and it is on Betts, as well as Freeman if he is healthy, to step up to help Los Angeles get at least a win on the road in the next two to avoid elimination. Betts admitted it is not possible to ignore his slump.
“It’s pretty impossible,” Betts said, via Gonzalez. “You guys [the media] are doing your jobs, but you’re asking me about it. So there’s no way to get away from it. The whole world knows. It’s not like it’s a secret. I know. Nobody’s telling me anything I don’t know already. Nobody can be any harder on myself. Only thing I can really do is look forward, but I know it’s there.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on Mookie Betts’ slump
Dave Roberts admitted that Betts has to get out of his slump for the Dodgers to make a deep run like they are envisioning.
“He’s got to be Mookie,” Roberts said, via Gonzalez. “I don’t expect any more than he’s done over his eight-or nine-year career. And it’s also up to the other players to chip in also. All of my ask is for the guys to be what they’ve been, what they’ve shown throughout their careers.”
The Dodgers are in the same position they were two years ago against the Padres, tied 1-1 heading to San Diego for Game 3. Los Angeles looks for a different outcome this time around, as the team was eliminated in four games that year.
The post Dodgers’ Mookie Betts gets brutally honest on going hitless in last 22 playoff at-bats appeared first on ClutchPoints.
