The Dodgers have a Mookie Betts problem.
The former MVP and three-time World Series champion went 0-for-4 in Wednesday’s 6-2 Game 5 loss to the Blue Jays that put the defending champions’ season on the brink.
Betts is hitting just .130 (3-for-23) with zero extra-base hits or RBIs in the World Series, and hitting just .234 with a .648 OPS across the postseason.
Moving Betts down to the No. 3 spot in the order for the first time in Game 5 of this Fall Classic could not galvanize the struggling star.
“I don’t want to speak for anybody else, but for me, personally, I’ve just been terrible,” Betts said. “I’ve been terrible and I wish it was from lack of effort, I really do, but it’s not. So, I don’t have any answers.”
This season has been a troubling one for Betts, 33, who endured his worst regular season of his potentially Hall of Fame career.
Betts posted career-lows in average (.258), on-base percentage (.326), slugging (.406) and OPS (.732).
He rebounded to post an .809 OPS spanning the wild-card, NLDS and NLCS rounds, driving in six runs in 10 games, but his production has cratered in the World Series.
Betts has reached base just six times, three by walk and three by singles, and had an ugly 1-for-8 line in the 18-inning Game 3 thriller.
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His struggles come while the Dodgers collectively are not hitting all that well, having scored 18 runs across these first five games and just three total in the Games 4 and 5 losses.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts moved Will Smith into the No. 2 hole for Game 5, bumping the shortstop down one spot, but Betts struck out swinging twice, grounded out and flied out.
“I think he’s pressing,” Roberts said. “Hopefully the off day, find a way to get away from it and then go out there and just kind of focus on one game and be good for one game. Go out there and compete.
“I think you can see there’s a little anxiousness in there. But it’s not the first time he’s struggles, it’s not the first time he’s faced elimination. And it’s not just Mookie, it’s everyone that’s got to to do their part too.”
Betts also had a rough moment in the field Wednesday when he couldn’t turn a double play in the third inning, extending the frame for another batter.
Starter Blake Snell avoided damage, but it cost him six pitches.
“Physically, (Betts is) fine,” Roberts said. “I know he wants to perform and get hits, but he’s played great defense and that was kind of an outlier play. But he’s going to be in there in Game 6, I do know that.”
