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Mookie Betts leaves the game in the 1st inning for the Dodgers with right lower back pain

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts left Saturday’s game at Washington after the top of the first inning because of right lower back pain.

Betts was starting at shortstop and batting third when he drew a walk in the first and eventually scored on Freddie Freeman’s two-run double. He was replaced in the field by Miguel Rojas before the bottom of the inning. The Dodgers went on to win 10-5.

Manager Dave Roberts said postgame that Betts would have an MRI on Saturday night and is unlikely to play Sunday.

“It was running the bases, scoring on that double,” Roberts said. “It’s certainly more moderate than significant.”

Still, Roberts indicated Betts will not be rushed back for the series finale at Washington — or even the following game on the turf at Toronto on Monday.

“I don’t want to get too far ahead of what we’re going to do,” Roberts said. “We’ll huddle up and see if we need to get a player here. … He certainly won’t be playing the next couple days, I would assume.”

The 33-year-old Betts is coming off a 2025 season in which he played 150 games. He scuffled through the postseason but began the 6-6-3 double play that won Game 7 of the World Series for Los Angeles.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Orioles manager Craig Albernaz returns — with a broken jaw — a day after being hit by a foul ball

By The Associated Press
BALTIMORE (AP) — With a big bruise on the right side of his face and several fractures, Baltimore Orioles manager Craig Albernaz was back at the ballpark a day after being hit by a foul ball in the dugout. “I can't blow my nose for six weeks, because one of the fractures is kind of like where my orbital bone is,” he said before a 4-3 loss to Arizona. “If I blow my nose, it's going to go up into my eye.” Albernaz said he has more than a half-dozen fractures in his cheek area and a broken jaw, but he was relieved to avoid surgery and said he doesn't need his jaw wired. Albernaz joked that he might grab a Ravens helmet from his desk to wear in the dugout. Albernaz, in his first season as Baltimore's manager, was in the part of the dugout closest to the on-deck circle when Jeremiah Jackson's foul ball struck him in the fifth inning Monday night. He returned to the dugout an inning later when Jackson hit a grand slam, but he ultimately ended up listening to the game on the radio en route to a hospital, where he says he remained until about midnight.
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