LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts’ season ended a month ago.
After the Dodgers’ win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Aug. 8, Betts was batting .239 with a .680 OPS (despite two hits including a home run that night). He declared that he was done worrying about those numbers.
“This season’s over,” Betts said that month. “My season’s kind of over. We’re going to have to chalk that up to not a great season.”
Since that night, Betts’ season has taken a turn. Going into Wednesday night’s game against the Colorado Rockies, Betts had batted .322 (37 for 115) in 29 games with a .905 OPS, six home runs, 21 RBIs and 19 runs scored.
True to his earlier declaration, Betts is not willing to make too much of this.
“I mean, it’s been pretty good if you just try to step back and look at it,” he said recently. “But you just can’t stay there. You take a step back, take a peek at it, but you still have to just be one at-bat at a time, one pitch at a time. Just staying in the moment. Just something new that I’ve learned and I’ll always do.”
The new attitude has resurrected the old Mookie. After another two-hit game on Tuesday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Betts “looks like Mookie” perhaps for the first time this season.
“I think what that means is there’s real confidence, there’s edge, just letting his ability to just play,” Roberts said Wednesday. “I think that we’re seeing that at shortstop now, and in the batter’s box. There’s just that edge, and he’s not in between as he was for a lot of the season. So I think that for me, that’s what I mean when I say Mookie looks like Mookie right now.”
OUTFIELD SHUFFLE
Utility man Tommy Edman was activated from the injured list and started Wednesday’s game in center field. He is likely to see more playing time there than at second base.
“I want to see him with my own eyes in games,” Roberts said. “He’s going to be taking ground balls at second base as well. I can’t really say yet how much I’m gonna play him at second base vs. center field until I really see it, because I do know that the getting off the ball is something I’m going to be really mindful of watching (because of Edman’s recurring ankle injury).”
With Edman in center, Andy Pages was pushed to left field. Teoscar Hernandez remained in right field though Roberts acknowledged Pages is a better defensive fit in right field because of his strong arm.
Hernandez has a preference for right field over left (which he played most of last season), which Roberts acknowledged was also a factor. He also said Hernandez’s defense has improved since the series in Colorado last month when his defensive deficiencies became an issue.
“I think since Colorado, I think that the outfield play has been very good from Teo,” Roberts said. “Now to just flip ’em (and put Pages in right with Hernandez in left), I just didn’t feel comfortable doing that right now. And then we have two guys that are more comfortable in right, in Andy and Teo, if Andy’s not in center field.
“Obviously, I like Andy in right, I like the arm. Teo finished the season, played the season last year in left field, so we’ve shown that we can win a championship with him in left field. Not quite there yet, but thinking about it. And a lot of it is contingent on how Tommy looks as well.”
Roberts said Wednesday’s configuration will be the setup against left-handed pitching for now. Michael Conforto will continue to get starts against right-handers.
PITCHING PLANS
Shohei Ohtani will not pitch during the Dodgers’ series in San Francisco this weekend. His next pitching start won’t be until the series against the Philadelphia Phillies in Los Angeles next week – “maybe” not until Wednesday in order to back it up against the Dodgers’ off day next Thursday, Roberts said.
Ohtani was scheduled to pitch last Wednesday in Pittsburgh, but he was scratched due to illness. He wasn’t going to pitch last weekend in Baltimore either but moved up and started Friday on short notice when Tyler Glasnow came down with back stiffness.
“It was kind of the sickness, we moved him up, and then just to kind of give a little bit of extra rest on the back end of that last start,” Roberts said, explaining the decision.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto is scheduled to start Friday for the first time since taking a no-hitter into the ninth inning last Saturday. Clayton Kershaw is scheduled to start on Saturday and Tyler Glasnow on Sunday against the Giants.
SASAKI STATUS
Rookie right-hander Roki Sasaki completed his rehab assignment in impressive fashion Tuesday night. He gave up three runs and three hits while striking out eight in 4⅔ innings. More importantly, Sasaki’s stuff “ticked up” with his fastball velocity hitting 100 mph and averaging 98.5 mph.
Sasaki traveled back to Los Angeles on Wednesday and Roberts said there will be a meeting with Sasaki and the Dodgers’ decision-makers “to be honest with Roki and kind of where we’re at, where he’s at, what’s best for him, what’s best for us.”
Everything will be “on the table,” Roberts said, including whether Sasaki could pitch out of the bullpen down the stretch and during the postseason.
“We’d have to see it here,” Roberts said. “We still have time, but we’d have to see it here, obviously. We have to make a decision at some point in time, kind of where we’re going to move forward here in the next couple weeks.”
ALSO
In order to activate Edman from the IL, the Dodgers optioned outfielder Justin Dean back to Triple-A Oklahoma City. Dean appeared in 18 games with the Dodgers, primarily as a pinch-runner or defensive replacement. He had just two at-bats.
UP NEXT
The Dodgers are off Thursday.
Dodgers (RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 11-8, 2.72 ERA) at Giants (RHP Justin Verlander, 3-10, 4.09 ERA), Friday, 7:15 p.m., SportsNet LA, MLB Network (out of market), 570 AM