{"id":253640,"date":"2026-04-06T03:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/253640\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T03:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:52:13","slug":"dodgers-put-mookie-betts-on-il-before-sweeping-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/253640\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers put Mookie Betts on IL before sweeping Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Dodgers<\/a> shortstop Mookie Betts\u2019<\/a> MRI scan Saturday night revealed a strain of his right oblique. That sealed the Dodgers\u2019 decision.<\/p>\n

The team put Betts on the injured list and recalled Hyeseong Kim<\/a> from triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday morning before an 8-6 win over the Washington Nationals to complete a three-game sweep.<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing oblique, it kind of gives you a little something in your stomach,\u201d manager Dave Roberts<\/a> said. \u201cBut talking to Mookie, I felt a little more reassured today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betts had popped into Roberts\u2019 office minutes earlier and reported feeling better than expected. Betts first felt the discomfort rounding the bases to score on Freddie Freeman\u2019s first-inning double Saturday, according to Roberts, but the team\u2019s working theory is that he strained the muscle on a check swing as he worked a walk in his only plate appearance of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as putting a timeline, I\u2019m really hesitant right now, because [obliques] are tricky,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

Asked if it could be a four-to-six-week recovery, Roberts said he\u2019d \u201ctake the under.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim also was in the clubhouse at Nationals Park on Sunday morning. While Betts is sidelined, Kim is poised to share time at shortstop with Miguel Rojas<\/a>, who was batting second Sunday and went one for five.<\/p>\n

Kim made his season debut as a defensive replacement at second base in the eighth inning. <\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying the good defense that he\u2019s been known to do,\u201d Roberts said of what he expects from Kim. \u201cAnd just take good at-bats. Take the walks when they\u2019re there, control the strike zone. And not expect to carry us, but just be the player he is, bring energy. And it\u2019s good to have him back. Obviously, not at the cost of Mookie. But he\u2019s always additive when he\u2019s around.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A tarp lies on the field in Washington as rain delays a game between the Dodgers and Nationals on Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Nick Wass \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Kim was a surprising omission from the opening day roster. Despite his offensive struggles with Korea in the World Baseball Classic, he hit .407 in 27 at-bats with the Dodgers this spring. <\/p>\n

\u201cKim, when he starts to chase back-foot sliders, that sort of thing, you know he\u2019s feeling something that\u2019s not right, he\u2019s not trusting himself,\u201d Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates recently told The Times. \u201cI think that\u2019s where it kind of went awry in the WBC, a little bit. But he honed it back in when he got back with us. Once he got done with the jet lag, and the whole thing, he basically did everything we asked him to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dodgers felt there were growth opportunities for both Kim in triple A, with regular at-bats to reinforce his spring adjustments and playing time at multiple positions, and Alex Freeland in the majors, where he has faced a higher caliber of pitching and served as the left-handed half of the platoon at second base. <\/p>\n

Roberts plans to keep Freeland, who\u2019s struggling with a .641 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, at second base, though he also can play shortstop. <\/p>\n

Roberts had yet to figure out a new normal for the top of the batting order without Betts. The lineup Sunday \u2014 which was scheduled to be a day game following a late-afternoon Saturday matchup and before the Dodgers head to Toronto for a World Series rematch \u2014 included backups in right field, third base and behind the plate.<\/p>\n

Right fielder Kyle Tucker<\/a> usually bats behind leadoff hitter Shohei Ohtani<\/a>. Roberts moved up Rojas to set him up for an extra at-bat against Nationals left-handed starter Foster Griffin. Left fielder Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez took Betts\u2019 usual No. 3 spot in the order and responded with his first home run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t thought through that,\u201d Roberts said of the top of the order. \u201cI might have some time before today\u2019s game starts to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, he knew he\u2019d have plenty of time. There was already a downpour outside. The game began at 3:44 local time after a delay of 2 hours 9 minutes.<\/p>\n

Offense picks up Roki Sasaki \"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers during the second inning against the Washington Nationals on Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Nick Wass \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

For Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki, the ground ball could not have bounced to a worse spot.<\/p>\n

The unraveling of his second start began with a stroke of bad luck.<\/p>\n

Sasaki was one out away from a scoreless fourth inning. And the slider he threw to Nationals No. 8 hitter Keibert Ruiz had its desired effect: soft contact. But the grounder hit first base and kicked up and over Freddie Freeman for an RBI single.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was one run behind and I wanted to get an out,\u201d Sasaki said. \u201cIt was kind of disappointing.\u201d <\/p>\n

Then, in a 2-and-2 count to Jos\u00e9 Tena, Sasaki threw a fastball off the plate, but Tena reached it for a line-drive single. Next, Sasaki grooved a splitter to James Wood, who hit it over the center-field fence for a three-run home run.<\/p>\n

Sasaki also had given up a two-run shot to Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. in the third inning, bringing his total to six runs surrendered. <\/p>\n

Sasaki retired the side in order in the fifth to finish his outing, bringing his pitch count to 90. He gave up five hits and three walks and struck out five.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw potential growth,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI think you could argue his last inning was his best inning that he threw the baseball. To respond from that, to get to that five-inning mark, I thought was important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until the eighth inning, the Dodgers had scored only via the long ball. Ohtani\u2019s solo blast in the third inning was his second home run of the series and season. Catcher Dalton Rushing notched his first, a two-run shot in the sixth.<\/p>\n

Then the Dodgers rallied for four runs in the eighth to retake the lead, scoring on a two-run single from Santiago Espinal, a ground ball to first base from pinch-hitting Tucker and a sacrifice fly from Ohtani.<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez added an insurance run in the ninth with his home run. The comeback victory gave them 31 runs in the three-game sweep, more than they scored in their first six games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts\u2019 MRI scan Saturday night revealed a strain of his right oblique. That sealed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[110146,3560,85854,21354,48,52,51,47,50,49,105027,3835,112543,112542,424,81700,112541,25041,315,2335,105028],"class_list":{"0":"post-253640","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-batting-order","9":"tag-dodger","10":"tag-hyeseong-kim","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-headlines","14":"tag-la-news","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","17":"tag-los-angeles-news","18":"tag-manager-dave-roberts","19":"tag-mookie-betts","20":"tag-only-plate-appearance","21":"tag-rain-delay","22":"tag-roberts","23":"tag-shortstop","24":"tag-sunday-game","25":"tag-sunday-morning","26":"tag-time","27":"tag-today","28":"tag-triple-a-oklahoma-city"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}