Doctors finally solved the mystery of the right-hip injury that has plagued Mookie Betts for weeks and sent the Dodgers right fielder to the injured list twice in the past month.
Medical tests revealed that Betts has a bone spur in the hip, manager Dave Roberts said before Friday night’s game against the New York Mets, a condition that usually requires surgery.
But Betts received an injection to ease the pain, and he will try to finish out the season before undergoing any type of medical procedure to shave down or remove the spur.
“It’s a short-term solution,” Roberts said of the injection. “Right now, where we’re at, we’re trying to figure out what’s the best way to get him back with us and through the season. Once we get to the offseason, we’ll address that.”
Betts was scratched from Tuesday night’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies because of a sore right hip. He was placed on the 10-day injured list Wednesday and flew back to Los Angeles to undergo tests Thursday.
“It’s a bone spur that is sort of tied into the hip,” Roberts said. “It’s really internal. We don’t know how it came to be. I really don’t know the exact location. All I know is it causes enough pain to prevent him from being out there.”
Betts was sidelined by the hip injury for the final two weeks of July. He hit .381 (eight for 21) with three homers and four RBIs in five games after being activated Aug. 1, but the pain sent him back to the injured list this week.
Betts, who is batting .277 with an .899 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 17 homers 25 doubles, 44 RBIs and 68 runs in 87 games this season, has not resumed baseball activities and there is no timetable for his return.
“But I do know the pain has subsided,” Roberts said. “When he can return, I still don’t know because he still has to get ramped up to see how it feels.”
The Dodgers are five games behind the San Francisco Giants with 47 games remaining entering the series opener against the Mets, and they will have to navigate at least another week or two without one of their most dynamic players.
“It’s been tough, it’s been hard,” Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner said. “Talking to him over last couple of days, he’s pulling hard for us, he’s doing what he can to make sure he gets back on the field as soon as he can. Until that time, we have to step up and fill in for him and figure out a way to win games.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.