Mookie Betts has been on a red-hot pace of late that moved him into the National League home run lead and a tie with Rafael Furcal for the Los Angeles Dodgers record of consecutive games with a run scored after he homered on Tuesday.
But on Wednesday, Betts was out of the lineup for a scheduled day off as the Dodgers dropped the series finale with the Washington Nationals 1-0. Betts entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning, but he was called out on strikes.
While Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged it was a tough decision to give Betts the day off, he stood by it in light of the bigger picture this season, via Juan Toribio of MLB.com:
“It’s not easy,” Roberts said of the decision. “I’m the first advocate to say that every game is important and you try to win every game, but there are costs. Mookie wanted to be in there, but we talked about an off-day and I wanted to stay true to that. … It’s certainly not easy to rest a player of his magnitude, but I’d do the same thing again considering everything.”
While it’s never ideal to be without your best player for a game, it does make sense to attempt to keep Betts healthy throughout the season, especially after last year when he dealt with multiple injuries.
Betts originally was scheduled to be off on Tuesday, but Cody Bellinger feeling under the weather prompted a change in the Dodgers’ lineup. On Wednesday, Hanser Alberto filled in as a right fielder for the first time in his Dodgers career as both Betts and Bellinger were out of the lineup.
The 29-year-old is in the midst of his best season since 2018 when he won the American League MVP award. In 40 games, Betts is batting .292/.385/.578 with a .416 wOBA, 172 wRC+ and 2.7 WAR.
Betts ‘heartbroken’ by recent mass shootings
After two mass shootings in 10 days that killed 31 people and injured two more, many athletes and coaches are speaking out about the high amount of gun violence in the country and the lack of change that follows.
Among those using their voice to call for change is Betts, who shared his heartbreak on Twitter and demanded that the government changes the laws surrounding guns.
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