DENVER — Because the Dodgers accomplished a sweep of the Colorado Rockies on Thursday, it was two of their cornerstone hitters who helped paved the way.
In what was then a tie recreation within the prime of the sixth inning, Mookie Betts led off with a double within the hole, Freddie Freeman introduced him house with a line drive to proper, and the Dodgers took a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, finishing a three-game sweep that saved them tied for one of the best report in baseball.
For a lot of the final 4 years, that might’ve been an unremarkable sequence. Shohei Ohtani is likely to be probably the most potent hitter within the Dodgers’ lineup, however Betts and Freeman have lengthy been the bedrock of their offense; All-Stars in every season they’ve performed in Los Angeles, and MVP candidates most of the time.
On Thursday, nevertheless, their sixth-inning heroics had a unique really feel. As a result of, for the final three weeks, each superstars have been mired in startlingly stark slumps.
Over Betts’ final 17 video games, the previous MVP is batting .191 with just one house run and eight RBIs — dropping his season-long manufacturing to only a shade above league common (he has a 106 OPS+, an all-encompassing stat by which 100 is taken into account league common).
Freeman’s final 20 video games have been even worse, highlighted by a .160 common that marks the bottom of any single-season, 20-game stretch in his whole profession — diminishing the stellar numbers he had this yr beforehand.
Such coinciding struggles haven’t triggered any “long-term concerns,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned this week. Thursday’s recreation supplied some long-awaited manufacturing, a sigh of aid for 2 veteran sluggers who don’t usually want one.
However nonetheless, the numbers are the numbers. A visit to even hitter-friendly Coors Area failed to totally carry them again to life. And till they rebound, exterior questions on their bats will linger, whereas their private seek for solutions will keep on.
“I’ve been frustrated for about six weeks now,” Freeman mentioned just lately.
“If I knew [what was wrong],” Betts echoed this week, “I promise you I wouldn’t keep doing it.”
The Dodgers’ Mookie Betts stays adamant that enjoying shortstop will not be the explanation his numbers are down on the plate this season.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Instances)
It wasn’t way back that each Betts and Freeman had been on polar reverse trajectories, surging by means of most of Could and early June on offensive heaters that evaporated their gradual (and bodily hampered) begins to the marketing campaign.
On April 28, Betts was hitting solely .230 with an OPS almost beneath .700, clearly affected by a abdomen virus that drained him over the 2 weeks main as much as opening day.
Then, in a 32-game stretch from April 29-June 7, his typical ranges of manufacturing all of a sudden reappeared. He hit .312 with 4 doubles, 4 house runs and an .835 OPS. And he did all of it whereas displaying defensive mastery of shortstop, quieting a rising narrative that the toll of his new place was curbing his capabilities on the plate.
“It’s not about shortstop,” Betts mentioned final month. “Because remember, last year, I was playing pretty well [offensively while] playing at shortstop. I had no idea what I was doing. Now, I’m way more confident in how I show up and prepare each and every day. The shortstop argument can’t be it.”
Given his current skid, nevertheless, such hypothesis is again.
“I’m gonna hold to no,” Roberts mentioned when requested in regards to the dynamic once more this week. “I think it’s a fair debate. But all I can go with is what Mookie is saying, as far as the separation of the hitting to the defense, the comfort level with the defense … So I don’t think there’s a correlation.”
As a substitute, Roberts pointed to an absence of energy as an even bigger issue. Betts’ .392 slugging share to this point is 50 factors worse than his earlier career-low (which got here in his rookie 2014 season). He ranks beneath league-average in underlying metrics reminiscent of exit velocity, hard-hit share and bat velocity most of all (slipping to the eleventh percentile amongst MLB hitters in that class).
“I think it’s the lack of hitting the ball on the barrel,” Roberts mentioned. “He’s a guy that knows how to find the barrel. But there’s times that he’s chasing a little bit more than he usually does. And then there’s a lot more pop-ups than typical. So to get power, you gotta find the barrel. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Freeman has endured much more whiplash amid his rollercoaster season.
On the finish of Could, he was main the Nationwide League with a .374 batting common. He was seemingly compensating for no matter lingering ache remained in the precise ankle he had surgically repaired within the offseason, then re-aggravated with a slip within the bathe on the finish of March.
Even at age 35, he appeared primed for a possible profession season, nicely on observe for an elusive first batting title.
“He’s just been relentless,” Roberts mentioned final month.
Now, nevertheless, one of many recreation’s finest hit collectors can’t appear to purchase a knock most days. His batting common has fallen all the way in which to .309 coming into Friday. Earlier than his Thursday afternoon single, he was 0-for-11 within the Rockies sequence and one-for-his-last-22 total.
“I have seen some signs where he’s hit some balls hard and hasn’t gotten anything to show for it,” Roberts mentioned, trying to find positives amid Freeman’s extremely uncharacteristic hunch. “That’s discouraging for him. But I just know he’s gonna find his way out of it.”
So far, although, he hasn’t, together with his common routine of slump-busting drills — from a internet train designed to advertise an inside-out bat path, to psychological cues meant to assist him keep again in his swing — having but to get his mechanics re-aligned.
“I’ve gone through every cue 16 times over again in the last six weeks,” he mentioned. “So just waiting for it to click.”
Although Freeman, who additionally battled a minor quadriceps harm in current weeks, nonetheless appears to be like hobbled whereas working the bases and enjoying protection at occasions, he insisted the issues aren’t injury-related.
“The only pain is the swing,” he mentioned.
And regardless of his finest efforts to hide such frustrations throughout video games, Roberts has seen the toll his hunch has began to take.
“I think he just wants consistency from his swing,” Roberts mentioned. “Wants to feel right consistently.”
Considerably amazingly, the Dodgers haven’t missed a beat even with their celebrity pairing clearly out of tune. The workforce is 13-4 in its final 17 video games. The offense has scored six runs per recreation in that span, half-a-run higher than its already MLB-leading season common. Different middle-of-the-order bats — from present NL batting chief Will Smith, to June participant of the month candidate Max Muncy and rising second-year star Andy Pages — have helped choose up the slack.
Ohtani, in the meantime, leads the Nationwide League with 28 house runs even whereas returning to two-way duties.
However in the long term, a lot of the Dodgers’ success nonetheless figures to run by means of Betts and Freeman. They’re nonetheless the 2 most veteran, skilled producers in a lineup filled with All-Star caliber expertise.
On the very least, Roberts insisted, Thursday provided “something to build on.”
However with the way in which the final month has gone for every, there stays a whole lot of work left to do.
