Steve Webb
That sigh of relief you’re hearing all over Southern California? Mookie Betts won’t be out for long. According to manager Dave Roberts, all the damage from last night’s HBP appears to be soft tissue damage only. No bones broken.
Betts came to the plate last night in the top of the ninth with a man on first and the Dodgers trailing by a run. It was the perfect setting for some “Mookie Magic”. However, the magic moment was nearly turned tragic when Seattle closer Rafael Montero came in tight with a fastball. It hit Mookie hard and the Dodgers star dropped to the ground in pain. After a visit with the training staff, Betts decided to stay in the game and took his base. The contest ending on the next pitch when Corey Seager grounding into a double play, so we will never know if Betts would have been able to continue last night. The way he went down did NOT look good.
Thankfully, the morning brought good news. Dave Roberts, in his pregame meeting with the press, announced that the injury to Betts did not appear to be serious. Instead, it looked like the ball had only caused some soft tissue damage on Betts’s right forearm. “The tests negative,” the skipper reported, “he came in feeling pretty good. Sore. We’ll probably stay away from him today. We’ll see how the treatment goes throughout the day.”
It was the best possible outcome to a potentially devastating blow to an already hobbled Dodgers roster. “I guess, best case scenario,” Roberts said about the incident. “There was a sigh of exhale once he decided he wanted to stay in there.” Roberts has no plans to use Betts today. However, he did say that if there were a situation in which he could pinch run for the Dodgers, he would consider using him in a tight contest.
Anyway. Whew!
