Watch: Mookie Betts continues his red-hot start with fifth HR of season
After setting a career-high with 39 home runs last season, do-it-all Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts is off to an even hotter start this season.
In Tuesday night's clash against the rival San Francisco Giants, Betts blasted his fifth home run of the young season, in just the seventh game of L.A.'s campaign.
Betts' scalding pace is leaps and bounds beyond even what he displayed last season. On April 2 last year, he had hit just one home run, which was also his season total after 10 games played.
Despite suggestions that his power numbers might regress after he enjoyed some solid home run luck in terms of ballpark factor, Betts seems to be more of a long ball threat than ever.
In fact, Betts' offensive numbers are looking outrageous across the board, as he leads the majors in hits, runs, homers, RBI, slugging percentage and OPS, to name a few categories.
Yes, he's played a few more games than most stars on other teams due to the Dodgers' Seoul Series in South Korea, but his rate-based stats are still the mark of the league's hottest hitter.
Betts is doing all of this at the plate while taking over at shortstop for Los Angeles, despite the fact that he has no professional or collegiate experience at the extremely challenging defensive position. It appears that there's just about nothing that Betts can't do, and he's truly standing out despite being embedded in a star-studded Dodgers roster.
If he keeps up a level of play anywhere close to what he's exhibiting so far, he could be on his way to a second MVP award, his first in the National League.
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