oblique strain in early April<\/a> that sidelined him for more than a month. Misfortune that brought back bad memories of last season\u2019s mystery illness that caused Betts to lose nearly 20 pounds.<\/p>\n ![\"Dodgers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786878919_403_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts (50) celebrates with teammates after hitting a home run against the Royals on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s the data since his return this season, Baseball Savant\u2019s evidence of Betts\u2019 bad rolls: His .278 expected batting average \u2014 the Statcast metric measuring the likelihood that a batted ball will become a hit \u2014 is .039 points higher than his actual batting average. That\u2019s the third-largest discrepancy in the big leagues.<\/p>\n
Also, Betts\u2019 HardHit% this season \u2014 measuring the rate of hard-hit balls \u2014 of 38.8%, nearly a 3% increase from last season. His exit velocity (90.5 mph) is a mile and a half more than last season.<\/p>\n
The game honors you, and the game tests you.<\/p>\n
Early this month, a dejected Betts had as tough a time explaining to reporters why, despite hitting the ball hard and stacking disciplined at-bats, he\u2019d had little to show for it. He hit only .205 in July, with a slugging percentage of .313.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m gonna have to help the team at some point,\u201d Betts said on Aug. 4. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard, I\u2019ve just never done this so I don\u2019t really know how to get through it. Everyday I show up and try to restore that hope meter.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this is very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Dodgers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786878920_838_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts throws the ball to first base for an out against the Royals on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
(Ronaldo Bolanos \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Roberts has stayed on him, he said, reminding him who he is. And who Betts is, of course, is a former MVP and eight-time All-Star, a seven-time Silver Slugger and former batting champion. He\u2019s a scratch-level bowler who made a virtually unprecedented shift from right field to shortstop in Year 11. There\u2019s not a lot Betts hasn\u2019t been able to do.<\/p>\n
We got a glimpse of that guy in this recent nine-game stretch, when Betts hit .387 (12 for 31) with a .645 slugging percentage.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me,\u201d Roberts said, \u201cit\u2019s just kind of how he\u2019s carrying himself, really. \u2026 He\u2019s always been good with not swinging at balls, swinging at strikes. So those components have been consistent. But, yeah, for me, it\u2019s just I like the swagger, the demeanor.\u201d<\/p>\n
More like Mookie.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s crucial,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cHe\u2019s got the experience, the talent, and he\u2019s an emotional guy. I say that in the sense that when he\u2019s going well, guys feed off that energy. And, when he\u2019s not, you\u2019re sort of trying to find it in him and get it in him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when he\u2019s going well like he has been this past series, guys feel good about it. So, it\u2019s important \u2026 that he\u2019s kind of found something to kind of hang his hat on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Put a sticky note in Betts\u2019 locker. Better yet, stick his baseball card in there. Because the guy in the box should understand who the guy in the box is \u2014 regardless of what the scoreboard might say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Program a reminder into his phone. Tie a string around his finger. Chant his name like a mantra:…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1004302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[20698,51380,29176,44462,1582,276,2442,1910,23590,2961,224,5337,3810,4247,9105,55055,449,35059,26804,5950],"class_list":["post-1004301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ball","tag-batting-average","tag-betts","tag-box","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-dodgers","tag-game","tag-guy","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-memory","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-month","tag-mookie","tag-point","tag-reminder","tag-roberts","tag-season"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117104906000400027","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1004302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}