Mookie Betts supplied a brand new perspective Tuesday afternoon on his season-long hunch, which is that it wasn’t a season-long hunch.
In his view, it really prolonged again to final season.
“I really haven’t been right since I came back from my hand last year,” Betts mentioned.
Betts fractured his left hand in mid-June final season when he was struck by a 98-mph fastball. He was sidelined for nearly two months.
Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts stares down at his batting gloves after flying out within the ninth inning towards the Minnesota Twins at Dodger Stadium on July 22.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Occasions)
“Think about it,” Betts mentioned. “Go and look at it. I haven’t been right since.”
Betts was a MVP candidate when he went down, hitting .304 on the time. He batted .263 after his return, together with .185 over the ultimate 17 video games of the common season.
The troubles from final 12 months have carried into this 12 months, by which he’s batting a career-worst .236.
Betts wished to make clear the purpose he was making an attempt to make.
“I wasn’t blaming it on my hand or anything,” he mentioned. “I was just saying since coming back, I haven’t done anything. It’s not just this season.”
Betts even went out of his solution to downplay the severity of the damage or the way it has affected him since.
“It wasn’t like I obliterated my hand,” he mentioned. “It was a fracture.”
Betts pointed to how his grip energy was measured in spring coaching. The readings confirmed his grip was stronger than he was the earlier 12 months.
Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts makes a play throughout a sport towards the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium on Aug. 4.
(Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Occasions)
“There’s no correlation to anything,” he mentioned. “I wish I could blame it on something, but nah.”
My go to to Dodger Stadium on Tuesday was prompted by what Betts instructed reporters after a weekend collection in Tampa. The remarks in query had been made when Betts was hitless in his final 4 video games; the streak prolonged to a career-high 5 after one other hitless sport on Monday towards the St. Louis Cardinals.
“I’ve done everything I can possibly do,” Betts instructed reporters. “It’s up to God at this point.”
In print, no less than, he sounded defeated. His quotes, I instructed him, had been miserable.
“I don’t know if you’re watching what’s going on, but it is depressing,” Betts mentioned with a smile.
So he nonetheless had a humorousness.
Which isn’t to say he’s not baffled or pissed off by his lack of manufacturing.
“It’s unexplainable,” Betts mentioned. “I don’t know. It sucks. You know how in Space Jam, they take your superpowers away? Kind of what it feels like. I’ve never been there, never done that, so to have that happen, I don’t know how to get out of it.”
With none particular solutions, he’s doubled down on the final philosophy that made him certainly one of baseball’s best gamers.
He’s labored.
“That’s the only thing I can do,” he mentioned. “The only thing I can control is my effort and my attitude.”
When Betts says he’s completed all the things he might do to recapture his outdated magic, what he’s actually saying is that he’s doing all the things he can.
“I hit for three or four hours a day,” he mentioned. “At some point, your body breaks down, but I’d rather break down than not give the effort.”
Betts confirmed up at Dodger Stadium earlier than 1:30 p.m. on Monday for the collection opener towards the Cardinals, which began at 7:10. He hit within the batting cages, labored on his protection on the sector, and took part in batting follow. He returned to the batting cages at round 4:30 and stayed there till 6:15.
“Just trying to relearn, going to the basics, relearning myself,” he mentioned. “I had to go back and think about what I used to do in the minor leagues, [those] types of things.”
Betts may not have but found out the changes required from him to interrupt out of his hunch, however he’s additionally not out of concepts. He acknowledged he’s purposely sounded extra clueless than he really is to be able to keep away from discussing modifications he’s making an attempt to implement.
“There’s a bunch of stuff that I’m working on,” he mentioned. “That’s stuff that, no offense to you guys, but you guys wouldn’t understand.”
The previous proper fielder didn’t suppose the workload at shortstop was the supply of his issues, and he didn’t suppose his batspeed had declined within the final couple of years, as information from baseball’s monitoring system had indicated.
“I haven’t hit the ball solid,” Betts mentioned. “Naturally, you slow down because you try to hit the ball solid.”
Whereas the experiment of deploying Betts as a leadoff hitter ended after solely two weeks, supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned he was dedicated to batting him close to the highest of the lineup.
“If that’s not confidence from a manager to a player,” Roberts mentioned, “I don’t know what is.”
Betts rewarded Roberts’ religion on Tuesday in a 12-6 victory over the Cardinals on Tuesday, as he was three for 4 with a double, a stroll and three runs. The three-hit sport was his first in virtually two months.
Betts refused to learn an excessive amount of into the efficiency.
“It’s good to get the results, but it’s one game,” he mentioned. “Every time we talk about [a good game], I go 0 for 20 after. So we’ll see about tomorrow.”
He departed the stadium unsure of what the outcomes can be the following day, however he knew what the method can be. He would proceed to work and proceed to seek for solutions.
