LOS ANGELES — For the first time in 37 days, Mookie Betts is back in the starting lineup, batting second for the Dodgers on Monday night against the San Francisco Giants. In between was a lot of waiting, still hampered by his strained right oblique.
“I didn’t realize how long it takes to really heal. I felt pretty good pretty fast, actually. But some of the movements I just couldn’t do, lingered for a long time,” Betts said Monday at Dodger Stadium. “I was trying to hurry, but the docs were like, ‘It takes a month for it to just heal.’ Then you have to do all your prep to get back to playing. So you can’t really rush time.”
He returns to a Dodgers lineup that could use some offense, having scored just seven runs in the previous three games against the Atlanta Braves, and scoring three or fewer runs eight times over the previous 11 games. Not that the Dodgers are expecting Betts to be a savior.
“Two games of rehab, taking batting practice, a day of live at-bats is not ideal, but I think with Mookie, you just don’t know,” manager Dave Roberts said. “The hope is that he can hit the ground running.”
Betts is keeping things simple.
“Things feel pretty close to the same. I remember all the drills that I did, but the more I focused on my swing, the worse it got. I think hit, take care of myself, and just play the games,” Betts said. “Whatever the game gives you is what it gives you. I’m not trying to focus on how my swing feels.”
The Dodgers plan to give Betts days off this week on Wednesday and Saturday, to ease him back into the lineup. Miguel Rojas will likely start at shortstop against Robbie Ray of the Giants on Wednesday.
“It’s more on the front end, just kind of how it’s been a while since he played. So the two-on, one-off, two-on, one-off, then after six days I think he’s going to want to be in there regularly,” Roberts said. “We’ll kind of see, but this is more about the front-end progression.”
But they will read and react depending on how Betts is feeling, and at least on Monday he says he feels pretty good.
“I’m fine. I expect I’ll just keep playing,” Betts said. “Everything is pretty normal.”
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