LOS ANGELES — When Mookie Betts sent a hanging slider from Max Scherzer into the left field pavilion on Friday night, it was his first home run since July 5, part of a 6-for-10 surge for him personally and a key moment in a victory for the Dodgers.
But that’s not what he thought about in the moments after the hit. He thought about his stepfather, who died last month.
“Every home run I’ve ever hit he’s always texted me, ‘Home run Mookie time!’” Betts said Saturday. “That’s just what he says and then it has the number of homers after. Not getting that text was sad.
“I was thinking about it after hitting the home run. I’d always know. It was like clockwork. I’d look after the game and it would say ‘Text sent at 8:12’ or whenever I hit the home run. It’s a situation that kind of sucks. It’s been a year. It’s life.”
It has been a challenging year for Betts – starting with the virus that sapped him of strength at the start of the season, a broken toe in midseason and the death of his stepfather last month.
“It’s been a lot,” he said.
All of that has been wrapped up in the worst offensive season of his career.
“I just got lost and I spiraled,” Betts said. “It’s the first time I’ve ever spiraled like that. I was in new territory in a slump like this. Usually, something just happens and I get out of it. It wasn’t working that way. At that point, you have to realize it’s not just going to happen.”
Betts tried working his way out of the slump but still found himself in a career-worst 0-for-22 stretch last weekend. With the Dodgers in Tampa, Betts got together with friend, former teammate and Florida resident J.D. Martinez. The two wound up at a batting cage.
“That’s not new. We’ve been doing that since 2018, going to batting cages on the road,” Betts said. “That’s the reason we bonded. Just like you and your friends go to lunch, me and J.D. bond over a good grind session. Then we go eat. We’ve been doing that forever.”
Martinez (out of the game this year after playing for the New York Mets last year) knows his swing as well as anyone, Betts said, and getting his feedback was “super valuable” – but there was no moment of epiphany where Martinez solved Betts’ season-long problems.
“I mean, I went 0 for 16 when he was there,” Betts said. “So I don’t know that something necessarily clicked in. But mostly it was just some confidence, man – just confidence in my abilities and do my best to believe in myself.”
Betts’ wife, Brianna, emphasized that as well.
“She just said stop looking to other people for answers,” Betts said. “Look within. You’ll figure something out. Stop talking to J.D. and Rob (Van Scoyoc) looking for answers – not necessarily in a negative way. But really look within to find answers from myself.”
One answer Betts found was the decision to stop looking at the big picture.
“My season’s kind of over. We’re going to have to chalk that up as not a great season,” he said Friday. “But I can go out and help the boys win every night, do something, get an RBI, make a play, do something that I’m going to have to shift my focus there. Obviously everyone wants to have great seasons, but it’s a lot easier when you just don’t worry about the season. You just worry about game to game.”
Isn’t there something freeing about that, to no longer worry about the numbers on the back of your baseball card or staring back at you from the scoreboard?
“Yes and no,” Betts said Saturday. “Yes, because you know you can’t salvage the season. But no, because I want to be in the Hall of Fame one day and you have to accept these numbers are always going to be there. It’s kind of hard to accept that. But at the end of the day, it is what it is. I just have to find ways to help the team win.”
ROKI REHAB
Right-hander Roki Sasaki recovered well from his three-inning simulated game Friday and will start a minor-league rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City next Thursday. Sasaki threw 46 pitches Friday and will try to repeat that with OKC.
“He needs to pitch,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Sasaki, who has been out since early May with a shoulder injury. “My guess is it’s probably going to be three innings. That’s kind of probably where he is at right now to then build up from there.”
OHTANI REUNION
As expected, Shohei Ohtani will make his next pitching start on Wednesday, backed up to the Dodgers’ off day on Thursday.
That means Ohtani will be pitching against his former team in Anaheim for the first time. That could make for an emotional night.
“Not really,” Roberts said with a smile. “Shohei – he doesn’t show a lot of emotion. So I don’t think he’ll be very emotional.”
ALSO
Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will swap places in the starting rotation with Glasnow starting Sunday against the Blue Jays and Yamamoto on Monday night in the opener of the Freeway Series in Anaheim. Glasnow will be on five days of rest. Yamamoto will have a full week off between starts.
UP NEXT
Blue Jays (LHP Eric Lauer, 7-2, 2.59 ERA) at Dodgers (RHP Tyler Glasnow, 1-1, 3.06 ERA), Sunday, 1:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM