Mookie Betts Reveals Dodgers’ Biggest Issues After Yankees Series
The Los Angeles Dodgers got one of their first tastes of a playoff atmosphere this season when they went up against the New York Yankees last weekend. Two of the primetime games were nationally televised.
The Dodgers won Friday and Saturday. Sunday, the Dodgers fell short of the sweep, but still had a victory within reach during the final at-bat of their 6-4 loss.
Mookie Betts assessed the Dodgers’ performance after the series, saying there are still several things the team has to fix — like situational hitting.
“We did alright,” Betts said, via Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “There’s obviously a lot of things that we have to fix. I mean, situational hitting. I think that’s one of the main things. Just making sure (we’re) playing the game the right way, doing everything the right way because come postseason time we’re going to have to execute those things. I came up in a couple situations that I need to come through. I don’t know how to work on that, but sometimes you’ve just got to get stuff done.”
While the Dodgers have one of the best lineups in the game with Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández, and Will Smith, there are times they don’t perform up to their potential, especially when they need to. This is somewhat inevitable over a 162-game season, but has happened too often for the Dodgers this season.
The Dodgers rank among the league leaders in many hitting stats. Yet they are below average when it comes to driving in runners on base. (The Dodgers have been able to score 14.1 percent of all their baserunners this season, which ranks 16th in MLB.) These missed opportunities have been a key reason the Dodgers have not scored as many runs as their talented lineup might be expected to.
Sharpening up this area between now and October will be a crucial focal point of the Dodgers’ season.
Photo Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
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IMHO, the Ds need to sit the big 4 more. Mookie needs a break. He’ll say he doesn’t because he is just that way, but he does. And he should go back to 2nd base, with Rojas at short. Ohtani and Freddie need some days off. They will protest, but that is where Roberts needs to show he is strong and put his foot down. Maybe they can do a fake 10 day IL for one or more of them and bring up some of the hottest minor leaguers for a taste of the bigs.