The Los Angeles Dodgers lineup has been strong overall to start the season, but also suffered from inconsistency. While deadened baseballs being used are partly to blame, the bigger issue has been Mookie Betts and Max Muncy being among those falling short of expectations.
Betts was coming off a down year, mostly due to multiple injuries, but he began the 2022 season slow as well. After his first seven games, Betts was batting just .226/.273/.290 with a 64 wRC+ and recognized that he wasn’t happy with his swing.
He has been working toward fixing it, and seems he is finally starting to find some results and heat up. Betts went 2-for-3 with a home run against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday, and is now hitting .346/.357/.577 over his last seven games.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously still working and still looking and digging to try to get more info on the mechanics and mental side and whatnot,” Betts said. “But this is the best I’ve felt so far.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has been expecting Betts to have a bounce-back season, and it seems the 29-year-old is getting back on track.
Betts was limited to just 122 games while playing through hip pain last season but still managed to hit .264/.367/.487 with 23 home runs, a 131 wRC+ and 3.9 WAR. Most players would be pleased with that level of production, but for the five-time All-Star, it fell short of what has become expected of him.
Now healthy again, Betts is looking to produce among the best hitters in baseball, and if he does, the Dodgers should end up scoring a lot of runs.
Betts: outburst indicative of the Dodgers lineup
The Dodgers’ offensive talent was on display in their series finale victory against the Giants. The offense scored nine runs and broke the game open late with a four-run seventh inning.
“I think we’re capable of this every night,” Betts said. “Obviously, it’s hard to do but I think this is something that hopefully we can get on a wave and ride it.”
The lineup didn’t score for the first three innings, but they took the lead by scoring two runs off Alex Wood in the fourth, and continued to add on from there.
“I don’t know that we figured him out,” Betts said about the offense breaking out the second time through the order against Wood. “I think he still pitched alright, we just were able to finally kind of break through.
“I don’t think he pitched bad by any means. I think once we got ahead, it’s kind of a different ballgame and pitching on the defense instead of the offense. It was a tough situation, but I think he still pitched fine.”
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