With the Boston Red Sox one game away from clinching the American League East title and destined to claim the best record in Major League Baseball, they aren’t about to take any chances with Mookie Betts.
The Sox star outfielder exited Sunday’s win over the New York Mets with tightness in his left side, the same injury that saw him miss time in June. Betts had said he would play in Tuesday’s series opener against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium, but with the game being pushed back to a 7:05 p.m. ET start due to heavy rain, manager Alex Cora elected not to put Betts in the lineup.
“With the weather, it doesn’t make any sense, not even to DH him,” Cora said, via The Boston Herald. “He’s not playing today, we’ll stay away from him and we’ll go from there.”
Cora isn’t sure how many days Betts will miss but wants to err on the side of caution as the Sox gear up for the playoffs.
“Not a week,” Cora said. “Nah, not a week. He needs his at-bats and he’s the first one that will tell you that. But today the decision was made because of the weather. We’ll see how it goes. We’ll see what happens tonight first and we’ll see what we do.
“But one thing for sure, with him, and I know he’s close to doing a few things that are very special in this game. But like I’ve been saying, he’s a small guy, not as big as other ones and we need him to be close to 100 percent when we go to October.”
Betts assured reporters the injury is much less serious than the one he had in June that caused him to miss two weeks.
“It’s night and day,” Betts said. “I couldn’t really swing and do anything really. Hitting is absolutely fine. Throwing is still fine. It’s just that max effort throw in that area.”
The AL MVP candidate noted that he wouldn’t push through pain to try and win the award as his focus is on winning the World Series.
“Not really, just because I need to be fully healthy for the postseason to win a World Series. I’ve had a good year so far. We’re close to the end and those things are pretty cool but the most important thing is to win a World Series and be here for the team.”
