At 5 feet 9 and 180 pounds, Mookie Betts doesn't have the build of typical power hitter, but the Dodgers star finds a way to send the ball flying.
Dave Roberts is encouraged by the way this year’s Dodgers have responded to extreme adversity, but will it really be enough to win a World Series?Though still an All-Star, Betts’ batting average dipped to .264. He posted a career-low .803 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. And after hitting only 24 homers, he entered 2018 with more of an open mind, pondering ways he could revamp his game and upgrade his swing.
They were new concepts to Betts, a novice student of advanced swing mechanics — “I had never heard of that stuff,” he said — who now credits Martinez, Hyers, Van Scoyoc and former Boston assistant hitting coach Andy Barkett for his transformation. “J.D. would say, ‘Yup, Mookie’s got his tennis racket back out,’ ” Hyers said. “Because everything he hit, it was squared up.”
“I still kind of see myself as a regular, typical, get-on-base leadoff hitter,” Betts said earlier this year. “But you just kind of step back and look, my profile definitely changed.” Still, Martinez knows the kind of approach he would have employed, expecting to see the same from this year’s other big-bodied, big-swinging participants — such as Luis Robert Jr. , Pete Alonso and Betts’ first-round opponent, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. .
“Try to see how soft you can hit one out,” Martinez told Betts. “If you sit there and try to hit haymakers, you’re gonna go against your strength. Just catch the ball on the barrel … and the pitcher, the ball, the bat, that provides all the energy.”
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