Dodgers News: Red-Hot Mookie Betts Will Sit Today in Miami

Dodgers right-fielder Mookie Betts had a weekend for the ages, going 8-for-15 with two doubles, four home runs, eight runs scored, and seven RBIs in the first three games against the Marlins. The four homers put Betts at 31 on the season, just one behind the career high he set in his MVP season in 2018.

Don’t look for him to add to those series totals today, though, as Betts will have the day off in the series finale in Miami.

As Jack Harris writes in the Los Angeles Times, manager Dave Roberts made the tough decision to rest Mookie rather than having him play four straight days on the artificial turf at loanDepot park.

“The challenge for me is to recognize that [he’s getting hot], but to resist the urge to run him out there every single day,” Roberts said. “So that’s why it’s my decision to give him a day tomorrow — to keep that flame going.”

It will be the first missed start for Betts since August 18 and only the second since he returned from the injured list on July 3. Roberts has mostly used breaks in the schedule, including this past Thursday as the team traveled to Miami, to rest Betts, but with a four-game series on artificial turf and no off-days until September 8, Roberts thought it was best to get Betts off his feet today to be ready for the upcoming schedule, which includes three games in New York against the NL East-leading Mets and then a six-game homestand that brings the Padres and Giants to town.

It’s a hard decision for a manager make, especially about a player Roberts calls “one of the best in the game,” but in the context of the entire season, it makes a lot of sense.

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