Dodgers 2022 Highlights: Mookie Betts Set a New Career High in Homers
The 2022 Dodgers had a lot of highlights. In fact, until the third week in October, it was almost entirely highlights.
Okay, that's not entirely true. Walker Buehler going down with injury and eventually needing Tommy John surgery was rough. And there were five three-game losing streaks and a four-game losing streak mixed in there. But there were a lot of winning streaks in there, too. Twelve games, eight games, seven games (three times), five games (twice), four games (five times), three games (four times) — more than half of their games came during a winning streak of at least three games.
One highlight of 2022 was right-fielder Mookie Betts. After missing 40 games and struggling with a hip issue even when he was in the lineup in 2021, Betts came back fully healthy in 2022, missing just 20 games all year, 15 of which came after a collision in the outfield with Cody Bellinger left him with a cracked rib. Betts finished fifth in the MVP voting and earned his sixth Gold Glove and fifth Silver Slugger.
Mookie also set a new career high in home runs, knocking 35 to top the 32 he hit for Boston in 2018. Batting out of the leadoff spot in front of Trea Turner, Freddie Freeman, and Will Smith, Betts was on base 217 times and scored 117 runs. He also drove in 82 runs, 81 of which came from the leadoff spot. (His only non-leadoff RBI came as a pinch-hitter on September 22, when he hit a bases-loaded single off Joe Mantiply to walk it off against the Diamondbacks. You can see that hit at the 8:38 mark of the video below.)
One of the greatest things about Mookie's outstanding 2022 season is: He wasn't his best. He was very good, but we've seen him better. So while the Dodgers will surely miss Trea Turner, there's room for Mookie to take it to another level to help close that gap a little bit.
Here are some of the highlights of Mookie's 2022 season.
