TOKYO — Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts arrived in Japan this week battling an illness, and is questionable to be ready for the club’s regular-season openers on Tuesday and Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs, manager Dave Roberts said.
Betts did not play in the Dodgers’ 5-1 exhibition win over the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, and will be again held out of Sunday’s exhibition against the Hanshin Tigers.
However, as Betts left the ballpark Saturday, he joked that he’s “still alive” and was feeling better.
“He’s been really sick, lost some weight, so we’re trying to get him hydrated,” Roberts said earlier in the day. “We’ll see how these days go before we even think about making a decision for opening day.”
Betts first started feeling under the weather during the Dodgers’ final week of spring camp, sitting out their final two games of Cactus League play.
Roberts said there wasn’t much consideration to having Betts stay back from the team’s week-long trip to Tokyo, noting that “the doctors felt it was safe enough for him to make the trip.”
Betts did not participate in the Dodgers’ workout at the Tokyo Dome on Friday, but did take the field Saturday for pregame drills. On Sunday, Roberts said Betts is scheduled to have a “full day” of hitting and infield work.
“Then we’ll see how it goes from there,” he reiterated.
On the field Saturday, all the attention was fixed — as expected — on Shohei Ohtani, who was playing in his home country for the first time since representing Team Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
In his first trip to the plate, Ohtani received a loud ovation before drawing a full-count walk. In his next, he brought the Tokyo Dome to life, launching a 391-foot, two-run home run to right field as part of a five-run third-inning rally by the Dodgers — who also got long balls from Michael Conforto and Teoscar Hernández in the frame.
“He just has the ability, when there’s expectations for him, to do something special,” Roberts said.
Just like on Friday, when the more than 10,000 fans who attended the Dodgers’ open team workout roared at the sight of Ohtani on the field, the mere presence of the three-time MVP caused a stir before Saturday’s sellout crowd.
When he took the field pregame for a session of catch play in the outfield — Ohtani has maintained his flat-ground throwing sessions this week, even though he paused bullpen sessions near the end of spring camp in his continued recovery as a pitcher from a 2023 Tommy John surgery — fans stampeded toward the bottom of the lower bowl, roaring in approval with almost every throw.
When he came to the plate for the first time, seemingly everyone in attendance whipped out their phones to capture the moment — getting their first chance to see the country’s baseball hero in person with a Major League Baseball team.
“This many people came, even though it was an exhibition,” Ohtani said in Japanese afterward. “Personally, it felt like I was back for the first time in a while.”
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