The Athletic has live coverage of Dodgers vs. Blue Jays in Game 6 of the 2025 World Series.
LOS ANGELES – With the Los Angeles Dodgers suddenly on the brink of elimination, Mookie Betts bluntly assessed his performance after Game 5 of the World Series.
“I don’t want to speak on anybody else,” Betts said. “But for myself, I’ve just been terrible.”
The star shortstop capped off a quiet 6-1 loss against the Toronto Blue Jays with four at-bats that didn’t bear any fruit. He struck out twice against rookie phenom Trey Yesavage, grounded out and appeared to have a pitch to hit in the ninth against closer Jeff Hoffman. When he connected on a fly ball that died before the track, he looked down and muttered something to himself before tossing his bat aside.
The Dodgers’ offensive woes this series go beyond Betts. But the former MVP is now 3-for-23 in this series, and has just nine hits in 55 at-bats since the Wild Card Series as the lineup has looked to get going.
Betts’ struggles have been persistent enough that manager Dave Roberts slid him down to third in the batting order before Wednesday’s game. It’s the lowest spot in the lineup that Betts had hit in a game since Sept. 8, 2021. It was a step that Roberts hadn’t taken with Betts, even at his lowest in a career-worst offensive season that started with a strength-sapping stomach virus and ended with a .732 OPS that was 71 points worse than his previous career low.
Even then, Betts had turned things on late in the season, with an .899 OPS in September and six hits in nine at-bats against the Cincinnati Reds to open the postseason.
“I wish it were from lack of effort,” Betts said. “But it’s not. I mean, that’s all I can say.”
Despite Betts’ regular-season struggles, he’s fallen back on a glove that has been a revelation. At 32, he won the Fielding Bible Award at shortstop in his first full season at the position and has continued to flash the leather this October. Even that hit a snag in Wednesday’s Game 5, as Betts made a wide throw on the front end of what should have been a simple double play turn in the third inning. That extended the frame, adding seven pitches to starter Blake Snell’s tally, which ended at a postseason career-high 116 pitches.
Roberts suggested Betts might be trying to do too much at the plate to make up for an offense that has scored six runs just once since the wild-card round and needed 18 innings to do so.
“Hopefully, the off day, (he can) find a way to get away from it, and then go out there and just kind of focus on one game and be good for one game, go out there and compete,” Roberts said. “But I think you can see, you know, there’s a little anxiousness in there. But it’s not the first time he’s struggled, it’s not the first time he’s faced elimination. And it’s not just Mookie, it’s everyone that’s got to do their part too.”
