{"id":663404,"date":"2026-04-04T21:01:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T21:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663404\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T21:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T21:01:20","slug":"mookie-betts-exits-game-against-nationals-in-first-inning-with-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663404\/","title":{"rendered":"Mookie Betts exits game against Nationals in first inning with injury"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/dodgers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dodgers<\/a> shortstop <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/dodgers\/story\/2026-02-19\/dodgers-mookie-betts-spring-training-expectations\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mookie Betts<\/a> left the Dodgers\u2019 game against the Nationals on Saturday with lower back pain on his right side, according to the team.<\/p>\n<p>He walked in his first plate appearance and scored on <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/dodgers\/story\/2025-10-28\/dodgers-freddie-freeman-walk-off-longest-world-series-game\" data-autoplayable-video=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Freddie Freeman<\/a>\u2019s two-run double in the first inning. But when the Dodgers took the field in the bottom half of the inning, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/dodgers\/story\/2026-03-18\/miguel-rojas-erroneous-suspension-report-evan-drellich\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Miguel Rojas<\/a> jogged out to short.<\/p>\n<p>The severity of Betts\u2019 injury was not immediately clear.<\/p>\n<p>Betts entered this year at full strength after being weakened at the beginning of last year by illness. Betts embraced new training methods, with an emphasis on stretching. And he was looking forward to seeing the effects javelin-throwing would have on his throws to first from on plays in the hole.<\/p>\n<p>Betts got off to a slow start at the plate. But in the <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/dodgers\/story\/2026-04-03\/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-hits-first-homer-nationals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dodgers\u2019 13-6 win<\/a> Friday against the Nationals, he recorded his first home run and first two-hit game of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts left the Dodgers\u2019 game against the Nationals on Saturday with lower back pain on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2398],"tags":[5,7880,39,7877,815,84590,14,4308,36605,3386,84588,4,1526,306,415,84589,670,414,71,4222,1319],"class_list":{"0":"post-663404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-nationals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-dodger","10":"tag-dodgers","11":"tag-first-inning","12":"tag-freddie-freeman","13":"tag-full-strength","14":"tag-game","15":"tag-hole","16":"tag-illness","17":"tag-injury","18":"tag-low-back-pain","19":"tag-mlb","20":"tag-mookie-betts","21":"tag-national","22":"tag-nationals","23":"tag-new-training-method","24":"tag-saturday","25":"tag-washington","26":"tag-washington-nationals","27":"tag-washingtonnationals","28":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116348458770498686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}