Mookie Betts was out of the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup on Friday night for a sixth consecutive game because of right hip irritation. When Betts suffered the injury last Saturday, manager Dave Roberts said the hope was to have him back for the series against the San Francisco Giants.
That looked to be the case as Betts was penciled in his usual leadoff spot for the series opener at Dodger Stadium. However, he was scratched because of lingering inflammation in the hip and been limited to a pinch-hit appearance since.
Fortunately for Betts and the team, there doesn’t appear to be a significant injury despite Roberts previously acknowledging this was the worst state the hip has been in all season.
“He’s basically day-to-day. Got imaging [Thursday], it didn’t really show anything as far as anything new,” Roberts said before the series opener against the Colorado Rockies. “It’s more per his tolerance.
“[Friday] I would assume he would be unavailable, and unavailable most likely on Saturday and hopefully we can get him moving around on Sunday. Then we have the day off and hopefully he’ll be ready to play against the Giants on Tuesday.”
Friday marked a bit of a breaking point as the Dodgers could have placed Betts on the 10-day injured list and taken advantage of the maximum three days for a retroactive date. Instead, the team will continue to forge ahead with a short bench.
“I think because if we do that, even with the backdate, we would miss him for the Giants series,” Roberts noted, alluding to an IL stint then making Betts unavailable until Friday. “I think the other alternative is we feel good standing pat and waiting it out.”
Challenges without Betts
While Chris Taylor has adequately filled in as a leadoff hitter in Betts’ absence, essentially going one week has limited options available to Roberts.
“It hasn’t been ideal. It certainly hasn’t been ideal,” he admitted. “We didn’t know where we were at a few days ago. Obviously we know where we’re at right now. I think we’re going to do everything we can to sort of navigate where we’re at with this current position player roster.”
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