Unsatisfied with his play, Mookie Betts began taking hundreds of extra daily swings during the postseason in hopes of regaining his superstar form.
Betts acknowledged as much two days after he went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in his Dodgers’ NLCS Game 2 loss to the Mets, dropping his playoff average to .192.
“I never do it during the season. It’s really not sustainable,” Betts, 32, said Wednesday before Game 3 at Citi Field.
“It’s not something that I want to do. I don’t want to go in there and hit all day. But it’s something that, based off of my play, I need to do.”
The extra work appears to be paying dividends.
And that’s bad news for the Mets.
Betts broke out with a monster performance in the Dodgers’ 10-2 win in Game 4 on Thursday night in Queens, going 4-for-6 with a home run, four RBI and three runs.
His two-run double against Mets reliever José Buttó in the fourth inning turned the Dodgers’ 3-2 lead into a three-run advantage.
His two-run home run against Phil Maton two innings later served as a 377-foot dagger, putting the Dodgers up by five runs and ultimately leading them to a 3-1 advantage in the best-of-seven playoff series.
And just like that, both of the Dodgers’ once-struggling superstars were firing on all cylinders.
Shohei Ohtani, who began his first MLB postseason with six hits in 30 at-bats, followed up Wednesday night’s eighth-inning moonshot with a 117.8-mph homer to lead off Game 4.
The Mets showed little interest in pitching to Ohtani after that, walking him in his next three plate appearances on 14 total pitches.
That’s where the big game by Betts, who bats second for Los Angeles, loomed especially large. He followed each of Ohtani’s walks with a hit, and Ohtani scored all three times.
Betts missed nearly two months during the regular season after being struck by a 98-mph fastball, leaving him with a broken left hand. The eight-time All-Star batted .304 before the injury but hit just .263 with nine home runs in 44 games after returning on Aug. 12.
He struck two home runs in the NLDS against the Padres but finished the five-game series with a .222 average and went hitless in three of the games.
Betts showed signs of breaking out of his slump in NLCS Game 3. He smoked a fifth-inning line drive with an exit velocity of 103 mph, but Francisco Lindor made a diving scoop at shortstop to rob him of a hit. Betts then struck a single in the seventh inning and finished 1-for-4 with a walk.
With Thursday’s huge performance, Betts’ playoff average jumped to .278, while his OPS soared to .964.
It was a torrid turnaround for a player who, before Wednesday’s game, said he wasn’t sure whether his struggles stemmed from a mechanical issue or a lack of feel.
“I think that’s the point of the 500 swings, because I don’t know,” Betts said. “I’m trying to figure out which one it is and hopefully something sticks. You’re not going to find it [by] not hitting. I’ve got to look for it somehow in those couple hundred. It will be in there.”
Indeed it was, and now the Mets’ season is in serious jeopardy.
