he good vibes derived from Tyler Glasnow’s dominant seven-inning start and Shohei Ohtani’s two-homer game were shattered in the seventh inning on Sunday when a 98-mph fastball struck the back of the left hand of Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts, who writhed on the ground for a few minutes before coming out of the game.
The Dodgers went on to defeat the Kansas City Royals 3-0 in front of a sellout crowd of 52,789 at Dodger Stadium, but they lost their dynamic leadoff man in the process — X-rays showed that Betts suffered a broken bone in his left hand, and though he won’t need surgery, he will be sidelined for several weeks.
“It’s a big blow, it is,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I feel really bad for Mookie. He was having an MVP season. It’s very unfortunate, but you’ve got to move on, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to be fine. We have really good players.”
Mookie Betts is hit by a pitch during the seventh inning Sunday against the Royals at Dodger Stadium.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Mookie Betts, left, writhes on the ground after being hit by a pitch as manager Dave Roberts and a team trainer tend to him during the seventh inning Sunday.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Betts, who is batting .304 with an .893 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 10 homers, 16 doubles, 40 RBIs and 50 runs, had a 1-and-2 count when he could not get out of the way of Royals reliever Dan Altavilla’s up-and-in heater. The ball hit Betts on the back of the left hand, which Betts clutched as he fell to the ground.
“I just went numb, and it hurt,” Betts said. “Unfortunately, it’s broken. There’s [nothing] we can really do now. … What’s next, I’m honestly not sure. Obviously, I’ll be watching the boys, cheering them on, but other than that, it’s just rest, maybe use it as a mental break, be ready to go whenever it heals up.”
Betts will be examined on Monday by Dr. Steven Shin, a hand specialist.
Betts moved from right field to second base over the winter and from second base to shortstop because of Gavin Lux’s throwing woes in early March.
The Dodgers have an excellent defensive option at shortstop in Miguel Rojas, but Rojas is nowhere near the hitter Betts is, and he has been slowed this season by leg injuries that prevent him from playing every day.
Shohei Ohtani hits a solo home run off Royals pitcher Brady Singer in the third inning Sunday at Dodger Stadium.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Roberts said utility man Kiké Hernández will also be used at shortstop. The team will recall left fielder Miguel Vargas from triple-A Oklahoma City to replace Betts on the roster. Ohtani will likely be moved to the leadoff spot in the order.
“It’s very tough to see as a teammate,” Ohtani, speaking through an interpreter, said of Betts. “He’s obviously a very important part of the team. If he’s out for some time, it’s really up to the rest of the team to pick him up so that we can continue on.”
The Betts injury, which came on the same day the Dodgers put pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the 15-day injured list because of a rotator-cuff strain, put a damper on an otherwise successful afternoon for the Dodgers.
Glasnow allowed three hits, striking out nine and walking one, over seven scoreless innings, and Ohtani and Freddie Freeman powered the offense with solo home runs.
Setup man Daniel Hudson struck out two of three batters in a scoreless eighth inning, and closer Evan Phillips threw a scoreless ninth for his 10th save.
Glasnow gave the Dodgers much-needed length after the team employed a “bullpen game” on Thursday night against the Texas Rangers and were forced into another bullpen game when Yamamoto left Saturday night’s start against the Royals after two innings because of injury.
Glasnow retired the side in order in the first two innings before giving up a leadoff single in the third to MJ Melendez, who was eventually wiped out on Kyle Isbel’s inning-ending double-play grounder.
Dodgers starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow delivers during the first inning Sunday.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
His only real trouble came in the fourth, when Bobby Witt Jr. reached on a one-out infield single and Vinnie Pasquantino walked. But he escaped the jam by striking out Salvador Perez with an 83-mph curve in the dirt and getting Adam Frazier to ground out to Betts, who ranged to the second-base side of the bag for Frazier’s grounder.
Glasnow went five straight starts from May 10 to June 4 in which his teammates scored no runs while he was pitching, a streak that was broken when they tallied three runs behind Glasnow in a 6-4 loss to the New York Yankees on June 9.
The run support for Glasnow wasn’t exactly robust on Sunday, but it was enough for improve to 7-5 with a 3.00 ERA in 15 starts on the season.
Ohtani gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead when he “used the big part of the field,” as Roberts likes to say, crushing a 451-foot solo home run — his second-longest of the season — to left-center field off Royals right-hander Brady Singer in the third inning.
Ohtani had been “getting a little too rotational” in his swing over the past week, Roberts said, causing him to pull off pitches early and hit too many ground balls to the right side, but he stayed on Singer’s 93-mph sinker for his 18th homer of the season, a laser that left his bat at 114.3 mph.
Ohtani then crushed an 80-mph first-pitch slider from Singer over the right-field wall to lead off the sixth inning for his 19th homer of the season and 18th multiple-homer game of his career.
Freeman followed with his 10th homer of the season.
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