Mookie Betts must snap out of his years-long postseason slump

Column: Dodgers need Mookie Betts to snap out of his years-long postseason slump

Mookie Betts walks back to the dugout after striking out in the third inning of a 10-2 loss to the San Diego Padres.

By Dylan Hernández

Columnist

Oct. 7, 2024 3 AM PT

The scene in the locker room on Sunday night was reminiscent of this time last year.

Mookie Betts exhaled.

He stared down at the carpet and ran his hand over his cleanly shaven head.

“I don’t really know what to say, bro,” he said.

In the wake of a 10-2 defeat on Sunday night, the Dodgers are tied with the San Diego Padres in their National League Division Series at one game apiece.

Betts is hitless in six at-bats.

He said of his at-bats in the first two games of this best-of-five series, “They’re all outs, so all terrible.”

With the series moving to Petco Park in San Diego for the next two games, Betts remains stuck in a postseason slump that has stretched into its fourth October. He is three for 44 in his last 12 playoff games, dating to Game 4 of the 2021 NL Championship Series.

When the Dodgers were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks last year in the NLDS, Betts was 0 for 11.

He can’t continue like this.

For the Dodgers to avoid elimination at this stage of the postseason for the third consecutive year, Betts has to start hitting.

Shohei Ohtani will be pitched to with extreme caution over the remainder of the series, as the Padres appear determined to not let him beat them again. Freddie Freeman might not even play in Game 3, as his sprained ankle kept him from playing on Sunday beyond the fifth inning.

Dodgers players (from left) Mookie Betts, Miguel Rojas and Edgardo Henriquez sit in the dugout.

The burden to restart the offense is squarely on Betts, who is in the fourth season of a 12-year, $365-million contract.

To be fair, he was no more than a handful of inches on Sunday from ending his personal October crisis.

In the first inning, Betts lined a first-pitch sweeper by Padres starter Yu Darvish over the short wall in Dodger Stadium’s left-field corner. Betts thought he’d homered. So did Darvish and FS1, which displayed a graphic on its television broadcast that read, “HOME RUN!”

Moments later, Betts realized that Padres outfielder Jurickson Profar had reached over several pairs of outstretched hands to secure the ball in his glove.

Nearly homering was of no consolation to Betts.

“I mean, it didn’t matter,” he said.

These playoffs were supposed to be different. Over the last month of the regular season, Betts punished opponents who pitched around Ohtani.

Twice in September, Ohtani was intentionally walked in front of Betts. Both times, Betts made the other team pay, once with an extra-inning home run against the Angels and the other time with a run-scoring single that broke a ninth-inning stalemate against the Atlanta Braves.

In the NLDS opener, Betts drew three walks, but two of them were intentional with first base open. In his two other plate appearances, he struck out looking and grounded out.

His at-bats in Game 2 after his near-miss in the first inning weren’t particularly competitive. He struck out in the third inning. He popped up to second base in the sixth. He grounded out to third base in the eighth.

“Not doing it,” Betts said. “So I’ve gotta figure it out.”

Manager Dave Roberts didn’t sound as concerned, implying the quality of his last couple of at-bats were affected by the lopsided score.

“It’s two games,” Roberts said. “I’m not worried.”

Last week, Betts broke out of a two-week slump to deliver a critical two-run single against the Padres in a win that clinched the NL West title for the Dodgers. He later estimated that he took 300 to 400 swings earlier in the day.

Between now and Game 3 on Tuesday night, Betts said he would “probably go three- or four-hundred more.”

He added, “We’ll see when the game starts.”

With Betts, caring has never been the problem. If anything, his problem is that he cares too much. But caring doesn’t necessarily lead to results. Betts knows that, which is why he didn’t make any promises.

Asked how confident he was of producing in this series, he offered an honest response..

“I’m confident I’m gonna keep giving my best,” he said.