Dodgers notes: Mookie Betts, Vin Scully, hitting struggles

Mookie Betts had been the Dodgers’ MVP in the regular season this year. When the calendar flipped to October, Betts has become one of the biggest liabilities in the lineup.

Betts has a career .256/.338/.383 slash in 57 postseason games with just four home runs in 260 plate appearances.

Betts was one of the best hitters for the Dodgers in the 2020 postseason, as he hit .296 with two home runs and an .871 OPS, the highest mark he’s had in a single postseason. Since the Dodgers won the World Series, Betts has hit to a meager .250/.329/.324 with just a single home run in 79 plate appearances, including three hits in his last 34 postseason at-bats.

So far in this season’s NLDS against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Betts is hitless in eight plate appearances.

Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times writes a column on Betts’ lackluster postseason, noting how he needs to drive the offense forward by simply hitting better:

“The Dodgers can’t have any more of this. For them to have any chance at reversing this deficit, Betts will have to hit.”

The Dodgers hitters in the first two games of the series have massively disappointed as a whole, as they are hitting just .159 with a .508 OPS, which rank ninth and 11th, respectively among the 12 postseason teams this season.

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Mirjam Swanson of the Orange County Register writes more about the Dodgers’ hitting woes, noting how the Dodgers are scarily close to repeating the same circumstances that led to an early exit last season:

“The Dodgers’ offense – allegedly their strong suit, their superpower – has no-showed, legit stood up every one of their fans who watched the first two games of this series. It’s setting up the second consecutive epic playoff fail, following last season’s 3-1 NLDS loss to the San Diego Padres – which featured the same sad theme: a lifeless offense.”

Vin Scully, arguably the greatest broadcaster in the history of professional sports, was named as the third-greatest Dodger of all time by Huston Mitchell of the Los Angeles Times in the latest edition of Dodgers Dugout.

David Brandt of the Associated Press writes about the Dodgers facing elimination and notes some of the instances where the Dodgers failed to capitalize and potentially even the series:

“I didn’t love the pitch selection,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the team’s late at-bats... “I saw some expansion, some pitches that were pitcher’s pitches that we offered at. That’s just what I saw. We had opportunities, but when you get opportunities you’ve got to cash in.”