Mookie Betts played a key role in the Los Angeles Dodgers earning a series win against the San Diego Padres over the weekend.
The eight-time All-Star went 4-for-12 with two home runs, six RBI and a walk in the three-game set at Petco Park. It continued what has been a productive month of June for Betts, who is finally starting to look like his old self again.
While Betts has heated up in recent weeks, he isn’t ready to say he has gotten his season back on track just yet, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group.
“No, it ain’t time yet. We’ll see,” Betts said when asked if now was the time to declare his season turned around.
“Things feel normal. It feels normal. Like I can go be a ballplayer again, let my abilities show. I can change my approach during at-bats. I’m not so upset about outs because I feel like I’m going about it the right way. So, again, I just feel like all the experience I have, knowledge I have, I can finally use because I’m equipped.”
Freddie Freeman also believes Betts has turned a corner, but stopped short of definitively saying so as a way to not jinx him.
“It’s baseball. We can’t say that. It can go sideways real quick,” Freeman cautioned on SportsNet LA.
“He’s swinging the bat really well. I’m not going to be the one to jinx it either. But he’s confident in himself, missiling balls into left-center. That last one, against Jason Adam, that’s a tough AB. And it’s a line drive into right field.”
Betts has posted season-highs in nearly every offensive category this month, including batting average (.278), on-base plus slugging (.808), extra-base hits (nine) and RBI (11).
Mookie Betts playing with ‘confidence’
Since June 6, Betts is hitting .321/.369/.564 with four doubles, five home runs and 10 RBI in 84 plate appearances across 19 games. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts attributed his offensive turnaround to feeling more confident at the plate.
“I think there’s confidence,” Roberts recently said of Betts’ success. “I think he’s confident because his swing is in a good spot, hitting the ball hard. The last couple weeks he’s hit the ball hard but hasn’t had a lot of fortune.
“But lately he’s gotten a couple hits that are just falling, which is great. Just the quality of at-bat, hitting the ball harder.”
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