Mookie Betts might be ready for the Dodgers’ home opener after all.
Despite being scratched from the team’s Freeway Series exhibition game Sunday, and held out of the lineup again Monday at Angel Stadium, the converted shortstop reported improved symptoms following a workout at Dodger Stadium on Monday afternoon, manager Dave Roberts said, raising hopes that Betts will make his season debut in Thursday’s home opener against the Detroit Tigers.
“Really encouraged,” Roberts said. “I do think that Mookie has turned a corner.”
Betts missed the Dodgers’ opening two games in Japan last week while battling a stomach virus, one that is believed to be a case of norovirus, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly. Betts said he had lost almost 20 pounds over the course of his illness, which began a few days before the team left for Japan earlier this month. He was scratched shortly before first pitch Sunday, he said, because he needed to throw up after trying to eat solid food.
“I’m tired of sitting, tired of just throwing up, tired of doing all this,” Betts said Sunday. “Every time — literally, every time — I fuel my body, I throw up.”
On Monday, however, Roberts said Betts was not only able to keep down solid food, but felt good after a workout that included both defensive drills at shortstop (the position Betts is returning to on a full-time basis this season) and batting practice.
Betts is now scheduled to play in Tuesday’s Freeway Series finale. If that goes well, he should be in the lineup Thursday, when the Dodgers’ regular-season schedule resumes.
“I think it was getting to be pretty concerning, because there really isn’t something to compare what he was going through,” Roberts said of Betts’ illness, which lingered so long that the 32-year-old went for bloodwork to rule out anything more serious. “But talked to him on his way home today. He said he feels great. And expect him to play tomorrow. So right now, we’re in a good spot.”
The Dodgers are also confident that first baseman Freddie Freeman, who also missed both Tokyo games after a flare-up in the same area of his ribs he suffered torn cartilage during last year’s postseason, is past his issue.
Freeman has played in both Freeway Series games this week, and said Monday he believes that his rib discomfort was simply the result of breaking up scar tissue that had built up where last October’s injury had healed. He made enough progress by the time returned home from Japan, he added, that he didn’t even need to go for an MRI scan.
“Hopefully it will be an afterthought by Thursday,” Freeman said. “I was able to hit in the cage and do whatever I wanted to on the day of Game 2 [in Japan]. But just didn’t know, game-speed, if it would make it come up again. So I thought we ultimately made the right decision.”
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