Plan A, as always, is Shohei Ohtani.
But over the last couple nights, Plan B has seemed fairly good too.
Whenever Ohtani returns from the injured listing, the two-way star will probably reprise his customary function as the Dodgers’ leadoff hitter –– one he has held since midway through his debut 2024 season with the group.
Likely, however, was as far as supervisor Dave Roberts was keen to describe it on Saturday.
Because in Ohtani’s absence, Mookie Betts has made a case to spearhead the group’s order, too.
Over the last week, a red-hot Betts has served as the Dodgers’ leadoff hitter thrice. In each of those contests, he delivered a classic efficiency.
There was a 2-for-4 show with an RBI and a double in Miami last week.
A 3-for-4 outburst with two home runs (including one to lead off the sport) against the San Francisco Giants on Friday evening.
Then, a 4-for-4, three-double, two-RBI, one-walk masterpiece in another 10-4 rout of the Giants on Saturday, a victory that lowered the Dodgers’ magic quantity to clinch a first-round playoff bye down to 4 with eight days remaining in the season.
“I just think he’s physically in a better spot than he has been,” Roberts said after Saturday’s outburst, which pushed Betts’ season average up to .261 and OPS to .785. “The ball’s coming off the right way.”
Of course, Betts has been crushing the ball regardless of where he’s been in the order these days. Since Aug. 5, he is batting .336 in 39 video games with 9 home runs, 12 doubles, 31 RBIs and a 1.008 OPS.
It has marked the former MVP’s best prolonged stretch since early in the 2024 season. It has been a reminder that there’s still lots of life left in his beforehand slumping bat.
“I know I’m still capable of it,” the 33-year-old Betts said. “I know it was in there somewhere.”
Added Roberts: “It just doesn’t matter where you hit him, who he’s facing, [what’s] the situation –– he’s taking good at-bats.”
Betts’ affect at the high of the lineup particularly, however, has been unimaginable to ignore over the last week; particularly when juxtaposed with the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Ohtani, who is expected back next week from proper arm and left knee accidents but still doesn’t determine to be 100% bodily.
That’s why, after writing Betts’ title in at the leadoff spot for a second-straight day Saturday, Roberts was requested if it’s still a certainty that Ohtani will stay in the leadoff spot upon his return.
“Yeah, I mean, I think that’s my first kind of thought,” Roberts said. “But until he gets back, or when he gets back, then I’ll kind of potentially read and react.”
Much will clearly rely on how Ohtani appears to be like, which will be the largest query after a 6-for-52 droop main up to his IL stint.
Roberts also cited other components like attempting to match up against either right- or left-handed pitching, leaving the door open to some game-by-game tinkering in October.
“I haven’t really thought too much about it [yet],” he insisted.
The method Betts is going, though, it might soon become a crucial lineup-construction resolution.
Run the risk with a doubtlessly diminished but ever-dangerous Ohtani? Or give the most at-bats as potential to the group’s hottest present hitter?
Granted, Betts hasn’t pushed to take over the leadoff spot, saying Friday that “I’ll hit wherever” and “there’s a guy that’s named Shohei that needs to be up there and to get us going.”
But if the Dodgers need to pivot among Ohtani’s ongoing illnesses, he is rapidly rising as their best fallback option –– particularly with their initial leadoff alternative, the switch-hitting Tommy Edman, mired in a brutal 2-for-39 droop.
“Going back up there, it is fun,” Betts acknowledged, having performed nearly 1,100 profession video games as a leadoff hitter over his 13-year profession. “Kind of feels like home.”
“You do got to kind of prepare for whatever,” Roberts added, “and I just think that Mookie’s swinging the bat well, has hit there many times throughout his career, so it just kind of makes sense.”
For now, the Dodgers’ greater precedence will be making sure Betts retains swinging the bat properly, whether that’s in the No. 1 spot or somewhere else in the coronary heart of the order.
His late-season surge has been one of the largest causes the group has survived Ohtani’s absence –– profitable 13 of its last 16 despite the celebrity slugger enjoying in just one of those contests.
“It’s good. It’s fun. But the main thing is doing it when it counts,” Betts said of his latest success. “Right now, just keep laying the foundation, and then when playoffs come, just need it to show up.”
Still, given how issues are trending at the second, it might not be a shock if the Dodgers’ first at-bat of the playoffs belonged to their streaking shortstop.
“I couldn’t tell you that I saw this [coming],” Roberts conceded. “But he’s got stronger. He’s worked hard on that … And just for it to come together has been great.”
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