Dodgers World Series: Mookie Betts Has ‘Just Been Terrible’

The Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves one game away from being eliminated in the 2025 World Series, mostly due to the poor offensive showings they’ve had.

Most of the lineup has contributed only to their offensive issues, and not to the benefit of the unit. The struggles led to Andy Pages being benched and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts making some changes with his lineup.

One of those changes was moving Mookie Betts from the two-hole to third in the lineup as Roberts looked to give Shohei Ohtani some more protection. Betts has been among the worst hitters on the Dodgers this postseason, and it’s been even more amplified in the World Series.

“I don’t want to speak on anybody else, but for me personally, I’ve just been terrible,” Betts said. “I’ve been terrible. I wish it was from lack of effort. I really do. But it’s not. I don’t have any answers.”

During the postseason, Betts is hitting .234 with a .647 on-base plus slugging over 64 at-bats with no home runs, six RBI and three runs scored. Against the Blue Jays, Betts has gone just 3-for-23 (.130) with no extra-base hits, one run scored and no RBI.

Dropping Betts to third in the lineup didn’t due much to correct his issues. He went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, which was his least productive game of the World Series. He reached base in each of the previous Fall Classic games, but also had a 1-for-8 with a walk in the marathon 18-inning Game 3.

However, it also isn’t out of the norm for Betts. In 103 World Series at-bats throughout his career, he’s only hit .222/.301/.367 (.668 OPS) with seven extra-base hits. That has come across four separate World Series, including his first with the Boston Red Sox.

During the postseason as a whole in his career, he’s hit .255/.341/.401 (.741), a far drop-off from his .290/.369/.512 (.881) in the regular season.

Dodgers offense has to make adjustments

In the World Series, the Dodgers have scored just 18 runs in 54 innings, giving them an average of three per nine innings. In the last two games, the Dodgers have totaled just two runs while going 10-for-61 and 0-for-6, respectively, with runners in scoring position.

“It doesn’t feel great,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the Game 5 loss. “You clearly see those guys finding ways to get hits, move the baseball forward, and we’re not doing a good job of it. I thought (Trey) Yesavage was good tonight mixing his fastball, slider, and the split. But, yeah, you still have to use the whole field and take what they give you.

“And if they’re not going to allow for slug, then you’ve got to be able to kind of redirect and club down to take competitive at-bats, and you see whether it’s (Addison) Barger or (Bo) Bichette, those guys are doing it. But again, we have that ability. We’ve got to make some adjustments.

“We have seen (Kevin) Gausman a ton, a lot of our guys have seen him, so we just got to come in fresh. We’ve been in elimination games, a core group of these guys, and we got to find a way to win a game. That’s it.”