WEST SACRAMENTO — Mookie Betts got an unscheduled day off Wednesday.
The Dodgers shortstop was scratched from the starting lineup against the A’s with a sore right wrist, but Manager Dave Roberts said the issue is not considered serious.
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“I think more just get ahead of it, don’t have an incident on how it happened, but he said with treatment he felt better, felt a lot of relief,” Roberts said. “So our expectation is tomorrow he’ll be back in there.”
Roberts said he was told about Betts’ discomfort early Wednesday afternoon and put him in the lineup with the hope that treatment would get Betts ready to play. The decision to scratch him was precautionary, Roberts said.
Hitting below .200 as late as June 13, Betts has turned his season around in the past few weeks by going 19 for 51 (.373) over his past 12 games.
NOT YET
Roberts confirmed Wednesday that neither catcher Will Smith nor utility man Kiké Hernandez will be back on the active roster before the mid-July All-Star break.
The news is not surprising for Hernandez, who has been out since May 26 with an oblique injury. But the lack of progress in Smith’s neck injury continues to be worrisome. Smith has been out since June 5 with what he described as “an inflamed disc” but downplayed as something that happens every now and then and usually goes away in a day or two.
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It hasn’t gone away despite Smith receiving injections.
“It’s certainly longer, I know, than all of us expected. But I don’t think it’s anything real, kind of affecting-the-season type thing,” Roberts said Wednesday.
“I think there’s some restriction as far as kind of the lateral (movement), when he does kind of try to ramp it up. It’s still some soreness, maybe a little bit of pain. So we just haven’t been able to get to the next step to push the baseball activity.”
Right-handed reliever Evan Phillips, however, is nearing the end of his rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City and could be activated soon. Phillips struck out the side in one inning for OKC on Wednesday night.
ROSTER MOVE
After pitching a 1-2-3 inning and striking out the side on Tuesday night, right-hander Wyatt Mills was returned to OKC and left-hander Charlie Barnes was promoted to pitch multiple innings in the Dodgers’ bullpen game on Wednesday.
UP NEXT
Padres (RHP Randy Vasquez, 6-6, 4.44 ERA) at Dodgers (RHP Roki Sasaki, 3-5, 4.88 ERA), Thursday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM
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