{"id":77553,"date":"2025-07-20T08:30:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T08:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/77553\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T08:30:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T08:30:27","slug":"dave-roberts-gives-mookie-betts-a-day-off-as-his-slump-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/77553\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Roberts gives Mookie Betts a day off as his slump continues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It took just one game coming out of the All-Star break for Dave Roberts<\/a> to know Mookie Betts<\/a> still wasn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n

A week ago, Roberts was hopeful that Betts \u2014 coming off his first missed All-Star Game in a decade \u2014 would return from the break refocused and rejuvenated; ready to snap out of a career-worst start to his season and rediscover a swing that has eluded him for much of the campaign.<\/p>\n

Instead, in the Dodgers\u2019 second-half opener<\/a> Friday night, Betts went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts. His batting average dipped to .241 (more than 20 points worse than he has ever posted in a full season) while his OPS fell to .688 (the worst it has been all year). And, as has been the case for most of the summer, his signs of frustration were abundantly clear, with the 32-year-old looking lost at the plate.<\/p>\n

Thus, when Roberts set his team\u2019s lineup for Saturday, the manager made a surprise decision to leave Betts out of it, giving his superstar shortstop an unplanned day off after calling Betts on Saturday morning to discuss the state of his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalking to him, seeing where his head is at, seeing where he\u2019s at mechanically, I just thought tonight was a night where I felt he needed to be down,\u201d Roberts said hours later, ahead of the Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 game against the Milwaukee Brewers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was more than willing and wanted to be out there. But for me, I wanted to take it out of his hands [so he could] have a day. I\u2019ve talked about this before, just having players watch a baseball game. And I understand we just had four days off at the break. But still showing up at the ballpark, and not participating, watching, that\u2019s a different mindset, psyche than being at home. So for him to come here, show up, not play, know he\u2019s not going to play, I feel good about the work he\u2019s going to put in today. Also, I think, for the mind it will be beneficial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betts did not talk to reporters Saturday, but did go through his normal set of pregame infield drills at shortstop \u2014 further confirming that, indeed, his absence from the lineup had nothing to do with any sort of injury-related issue.<\/p>\n

While Roberts said his \u201cexpectation\u201d is that Betts will be back in action Sunday, he left the door open to giving Betts another day off for the series finale.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a day-to-day thing,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be my decision on how I feel he is mentally to take on that night\u2019s starter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

There was no specific moment from Friday\u2019s game that convinced Roberts such a break was warranted. Instead, it was the fact that so little had seemingly changed from where Betts was before the All-Star break, when he reached the midway mark in a three-for-24 slump and batting just .185 over his previous 31 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not used to struggling like this,\u201d Roberts said of Betts, who also has only 11 home runs and a .377 slugging percentage. \u201cThere\u2019s a part of it where you feel like you\u2019re letting people down, letting the team down. That weight that is just natural for him to carry is there. That\u2019s a little bit from last night, just seeing him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betts has struggled to identify the cause of his decline \u2014 one so stark, he has a below-league-average mark of 95 in the all-encompassing OPS+ metric (effectively meaning he has been 5% less productive than a league average hitter).<\/p>\n

In an interview before Friday\u2019s game, he said he has cycled through various \u201cfeels\u201d with his swing in hopes of getting his mechanics realigned. Hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc pointed to inefficiencies in the way Betts \u201cloads\u201d his arms and hands, which he believes have impacted the slugger\u2019s bat path and swing sequence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no exact [fix], where you can do this, this and this,\u201d Van Scoyoc said, \u201cbecause he has to find something for him that works organically that gets him lined up.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, Roberts\u2019 hope is that Saturday\u2019s day off will help.<\/p>\n

That it comes just two days into the second half signals how urgent Betts\u2019 struggles have become.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe understood,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy that wants to be out there every single day. But I think he understood that it was my decision and I think it\u2019s best for him, I think it\u2019s best for our ball club. He\u2019ll be ready when called upon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It took just one game coming out of the All-Star break for Dave Roberts to know Mookie Betts…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":77554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[45914,1582,276,875,2385,2442,5208,1910,2609,2961,42296,224,5337,2749,6475,5395,53644,53643,31991,3007],"class_list":{"0":"post-77553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-all-star-break","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-dave-roberts","12":"tag-day","13":"tag-dodgers","14":"tag-friday","15":"tag-game","16":"tag-hope","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-lineup","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-mookie-betts","22":"tag-night","23":"tag-saturday","24":"tag-superstar-shortstop","25":"tag-surprise-decision","26":"tag-swing","27":"tag-team"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114884629451764129","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77553","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=77553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}