Twice final month, groups deliberately walked Shohei Ohtani to face Mookie Betts as a substitute. Each instances, the eight-time All-Star and former MVP emphatically reacted after making them pay.
There was an extra-inning residence run on Sept. 3 in opposition to the Angels, a game-sealing, three-run blast wherein Betts pointed on the sky, emotionally high-fived his teammates and gestured together with his fingers all the way in which again to the dugout — seemingly saying, that’s why you don’t pitch to me.
Then, there was a ninth-inning single on Sept. 15 in Atlanta, one other game-sealing knock wherein Betts gave an exaggerated clap, then pointed to his dugout — as if to say, right here we go once more.
Getting into the postseason, Dodgers followers is likely to be saying the identical about Betts. Since that single in Atlanta, Betts had simply 10 extra hits within the season’s closing two weeks. Return to Sept. 11 and he completed the season in a stoop, batting .184 with a .537 on-base-plus-slugging share.
For a star participant who has gone silent the previous two postseasons, it seems like an ominous pattern.
Final 12 months, Betts infamously went 0 for 11 within the sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks. The 12 months earlier than, he was simply two for 14 in one other Nationwide League Division Sequence defeat to the San Diego Padres.
Relationship to Sport 4 of the 2021 NL Championship Sequence, Betts is batting a shocking .079 (three for 38) in his earlier 10 playoff video games.
Getting into this October in an analogous stoop began to fire up some acquainted dread. Individuals across the Dodgers, nevertheless, imagine Betts is in a unique head area. He won’t be coming into the playoffs together with his hottest swing, however he’s been free of a number of the stresses he carried into earlier postseasons.
In spite of everything, this season was all about getting “lost in the process,” as Betts described it, from studying a brand new place to getting back from a damaged hand to with the ability to largely ignore his statistics.
“If you pay attention to those results,” Betts stated, “that will tear you down.”
That’s precisely what supervisor Dave Roberts believes occurred final September, recalling how Betts pressed in pursuit of a second most beneficial participant award and first 40-homer season.
“Whether he admits it or not, he might have been chasing,” Roberts stated of Betts, who completed final season second within the NL MVP voting and with 39 residence runs.
This 12 months, Roberts noticed a unique late-season mindset from the 31-year-old, a singular focus on refining the feels in his brief, explosive swing and tapping again into his high type.
“He’s certainly much better off this year going into October than he was last year,” Roberts insisted. “I think he just felt that whatever it takes to get him ready for the postseason is front of mind. Where, yeah, when you’re not trying to chase certain numbers or awards, then it certainly frees you up. That’s just natural.”
All of it coalesced in these two video games wherein Ohtani was walked in entrance of him — extremely emotional, extremely productive sequences wherein Betts delivered amid the utmost stress. And the workforce is optimistic they had been a preview of what’s forward.
“He knows it matters most this time of the year,” hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc stated. “He just has to trust himself, trust the work, trust the process. And if he does that, eventually it’s just a matter of time where he’ll go off in the postseason.”
“I know I go through those spells,” Mookie Betts stated of his hitting. “But I promise you, it’s not from lack of effort.”
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Occasions)
The 400 swings Betts claimed to absorb the batting cage final week may need been considerably embellished.
“But it was maybe a couple hundred,” Van Scoyoc stated. “Something like that.”
This was Sept. 26, forward of the Dodgers’ potential division-clincher in opposition to the Padres. Getting into the sport, Betts was hitless in his final eight at-bats. The evening earlier than, he popped out to all 4 infielders.
“I know I go through those spells,” Betts stated later. “But I promise you, it’s not from lack of effort.”
This has been Betts’ mindset for the reason that begin of this season, pouring himself into one new process after the subsequent.
There was his change to shortstop late in spring coaching, a drastic defensive transfer that led Betts to spend hours taking grounders in pregame drills on an nearly each day foundation. Then, after lacking nearly two months due to a damaged hand, there was a rehab course of to get again on the sphere, at which level he returned to proper subject and was bumped from the leadoff spot to No. 2 within the batting order.
All alongside, Betts’ manufacturing was via the roof. When he broke his hand June 16, Betts was hitting .304 and ranked fifth within the majors in wins above alternative (simply forward of Ohtani). Throughout his first month again from damage (from Aug. 12 to Sept. 10), Betts was one of many majors’ hottest hitters, batting .314 with 26 RBIs in 27 video games.
Each instances, coaches seen a steadiness in Betts’ mindset.
“Him playing shortstop helped distract him and not over-think his hitting,” Van Scoyoc stated.
After his two-month stint on the injured checklist — which successfully eradicated Betts from MVP rivalry — first base coach Clayton McCullough witnessed an analogous impact.
“This year, you’re not going to hit the career highs maybe you could have, just by the sheer amount of time you lost,” McCullough stated. “So now it’s just, ‘I want to get myself right. Because what really matters is what’s going to happen in October, and being on top of my game.’”
For Betts — whose nonchalant demeanor typically is interpreted as a scarcity of ardour — it created the form of setting the place his enjoyment is highest and most evident.
“I really just have fun in the process of getting better, kind of putting my brain into more of a training mindset,” he stated. “Then, when it’s time to play the game, I can really just turn my brain off and trust that my training prepared me.”
Which is why when he began shedding his finest swing within the closing weeks of the season, he went into the cages forward of the sequence finale in opposition to the Padres, and didn’t depart till his mechanics began to really feel higher.
“He loves to work. He’s going to do anything he can to figure some things out,” Roberts stated, the day after Betts adopted his pregame session with a clutch two-hit efficiency within the Dodgers’ division-clinching win. “So yeah, it just shows how much he cares. He wants to be great.”
Whether or not this all interprets to postseason greatness stays to be seen.
The 2-time World Sequence champion hasn’t shied away from the stress brought on by his current October stumbles, addressing them from first day of spring coaching.
“I gotta come and show up when it matters,” he stated then.
Roberts and his teaching workers have emphasised the necessity just lately as properly, understanding opponents would possibly pitch round Ohtani if Betts isn’t hitting properly behind him.
“He compartmentalizes it,” Van Scoyoc stated of Betts’ previous postseason failures. “Like anyone, he’s realistic. He knows he’s gonna have a bad series. But obviously, he really wants to be great and perform. And he knows it matters most this time of the year.”
A number of weeks in the past, Betts acknowledged how such stress is amplified on a workforce just like the Dodgers, agreeing with a query about whether or not it sucks the enjoyment out of the journey of a season.
“The expectations placed on us make it the end of the world” if we don’t play properly, he stated. “If you’re not flawless you get completely criticized … But that’s what we signed up for.”
That toll has, in different years, seemingly worn Betts down by this level, when the grind of 162 video games over the summer season will be negated by a single unhealthy sequence within the fall. This 12 months, although, Betts spent extra time getting misplaced in his course of.
“Going in the cage, trying to chase the perfect swing or going out and working on defense and trying to chase the perfect way to field a ground ball or whatever — I just kind of get lost in that,” he stated. “That’s what brings me joy, for sure.”
And the Dodgers’ hope is that it’ll create the recipe for achievement.
“He’s looking forward to another opportunity to perform in the postseason,” Roberts stated. “Obviously, we’re all judged on the postseason. And that’s part of it.”
