Mookie Betts left Sunday’s game between the Dodgers and the Royals with a fractured hand that won’t lead to the star outfielder needing surgery and won’t be a season-ending injury, according to manager Dave Roberts.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, he took a pitch off his left hand, which sent him to the ground in agony.
Betts had been at bat with a 1-2 count when Royals pitcher Dan Altavilla threw a 98 mph pitch that seemed to catch Betts in the bottom part of his left hand as he tried to move out of the way of the pitch that came inside.
The Dodgers star seemed to be stunned for a brief second before the pain kicked in and he fell to the ground clearly in a lot of pain.
Video from the stands showed Betts rolling around in the dirt in pain as Roberts and a member of the team’s medical staff came rushing out to attend to the outfielder.
The pain kept Betts on the ground for several minutes before he finally was able to get up on his own and walk to the dugout.
He was taken out of the game.
The Dodger Stadium crowd gave Betts a loud ovation as he walked to the dugout, and Altavilla was booed as he walked off the mound when the Royals opted to make a pitching change following the pitch that hit Betts.
Betts had been in the midst of a game that he hadn’t done too much at the plate.
He went 0-for-3 before he exited the game and earlier this month had broken a 1-for-25 slump that dropped his batting average to .236.
But Betts has remained one of the top players in the game with a .307 batting average — fifth-best in all of Major League Baseball — and having recorded 10 home runs for a star-studded Dodgers lineup.
Los Angeles took Sunday’s game over the Royals, 3-0, thanks to two homers by Shohei Ohtani and a solo homer by Freddie Freeman.