SAN DIEGO — With each of his estimated “three or four hundred” swings on Monday night, Mookie Betts looked to correct a concerning trend. The Los Angeles Dodgers superstar is hitless in his past 22 postseason at-bats and 3 for his past 44. That includes an 0-for-6 start to this year’s National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres.
So Betts arrived at Petco Park for the Dodgers’ scheduled workout and swung. First, in the cage. Then, on the field. Lastly, he took live at-bats against Brent Honeywell. With each session, he sought better results in October.
Betts said it’s “pretty impossible” not to let his previous postseasons bleed into his current start.
“Especially — you guys are doing your jobs but you’re asking me about it,” Betts said. “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.
“I’m a human. I’m living it. Nobody’s telling me anything I haven’t already seen and know. I’m trying, man. That’s all I can say.”
Betts has reached safely three times through the first two games of this series, all on walks — two of which were intentional with a base open in front of Freddie Freeman. He nearly connected on what would have been a first-inning home run Sunday night, only for left fielder Jurickson Profar to leap and reach across the short fence to snatch it out of the stands.
That didn’t give Betts any solace.
“It’s an out,” Betts said.
“They’re all outs,” he added of his recent at-bats, “so none of them are good.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged Monday that previous postseason results may be starting to filter in for his star right fielder. But he said he didn’t plan on moving Betts from the second spot in the Dodgers’ batting order.
“I can see the — I don’t know if it’s angst — or the pressure of past performances starting to kind of bleed in,” Roberts said. “That’s something that I don’t want to happen. I understand it.
“I believe he’s going to come to life. I know he has the talent. Obviously, he’s not afraid of the situation. So for me, it’s more of just go out there and compete your tail off.”
For Betts, correcting the issue means swinging through it. The outfielder scuffled for much of September, hitting .170 with three extra-base hits in the two weeks preceding the Dodgers’ division clincher on Sept. 26. Betts said he took between 300 and 400 swings in the cage that night, then proceeded to collect two hits, including a two-run single in the seventh in a Dodgers win over the Padres.
Roberts referenced the “burden” that Betts may be feeling as he struggles through potentially a third consecutive postseason. The manager said he would talk to his star, who turned 32 on Monday. Betts’ last hit in a postseason game was a leadoff single to begin Game 3 of the 2022 NLDS against San Diego.
“You look at postseason performers — it’s not that they over-performed their career stat line in the regular season,” Roberts said. “What they’ve done is that they do what they’ve done in the regular season. But on that stage, they’re considered postseason players.
“So in this particular case, all we expect Mookie to be is the same player he is in the regular season. And that’s it.”
Betts, a two-time World Series champion, has 273 career postseason plate appearances to his name, and a .700 OPS — nearly 200 points lower than his .897 career regular-season OPS.
The Dodgers have arguably never needed him more. Their struggling pitching staff means the accomplished stars in their lineup must carry the load.
The Padres, for their part, have sought to be cautious with Shohei Ohtani, who homered and singled in Game 1 but was held hitless in four at-bats in Game 2. Behind Betts, Freeman collected a pair of hits in Game 1 but exited Game 2 early after tweaking his already severely sprained right ankle on a swing in his second at-bat against Padres starter Yu Darvish.
Freeman’s status for Tuesday’s Game 3 remains uncertain, Roberts said. The first baseman was not spotted during the open portion of the Dodgers’ workout on Monday, and Roberts said Freeman was receiving treatment.
That puts a larger onus on Betts, who has seen three of his nine plate appearances this series come with runners on base.
“You need your best players to play well,” Roberts said. “It’s a pretty simple formula. It’s not easy to do.”
(Top photo of Mookie Betts: Robert Gauthier / Getty Images)
