Mookie Betts returns to the Dodgers' lineup after an oblique injury

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mookie Betts returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers' lineup Monday night, five weeks after being sidelined with an oblique injury.

The eight-time All-Star was set to hit second behind Shohei Ohtani and ahead of Freddie Freeman in the series opener against the San Francisco Giants.

“We just have to make sure we swing at good pitches,” Betts said before the game. “Those guys are good, too. They drive nice cars, too. We just have to control the zone, swing at good pitches.”

The Dodgers had dropped seven of their last 11 games and were looking for Betts to help jumpstart a stagnant offense. They scored three runs or fewer in eight of those 11 games.

"I know I’m not the hero,” said Betts, the 2018 AL MVP. “It’s important for everyone to know it’s going to take all of us and not just one guy getting through their struggles or whatever it is.”

Betts was batting .179 (5 for 28) with two home runs in eight games before he went on the injured list April 5 with a right oblique strain.

"I just didn’t really realize how long it takes for it to really heal,” he said. “I felt pretty good pretty fast actually. But just some of the movements I couldn’t do kind of lingered for a long time. I was trying to hurry but obviously the doctors were saying it just takes a month for it to heal.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Betts would start at shortstop Monday and Tuesday before taking Wednesday off.

“After seven days, six days, I think he’s going to want to be in there regularly, but we’ll kind of see,” Roberts said.

Betts was on a tear in spring training, hitting .357 with a .786 OPS in five games before briefly leaving the team for the birth of his third child. He cooled off the first two weeks of the regular season before getting hurt.

Roberts is taking a wait-and-see approach toward Betts' offense. The 33-year-old shortstop was 2 for 5 in two minor league rehab games.

“Certainly two games of rehab, taking batting practice, a day of live at-bats, is not ideal,” the manager said, “but I think with Mookie you just don’t know. The hope is that he can kind of hit the ground running.”

With Betts' return, infielder Alex Freeland was sent down to Triple-A Oklahoma City. He was hitting .235 with two homers and eight RBIs in 33 games.

The front office chose to keep second baseman Hyeseong Kim over Freeland.

“What it came down to is Hyeseong has performed better,” Roberts said.

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FILE - Los Angeles Dodgers' Mookie Betts in action during a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, April 4, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

Jim Colbert, renowned for wearing his bucket hat while winning eight times on the PGA Tour and 20 times on the PGA Tour Champions, has died, the PGA Tour announced. He was 85.

Colbert died on Sunday. The tour did not list a cause of death.

Colbert was a teenager playing a tournament in Kansas when he nearly collapsed from sunstroke, leading doctors to insist he start wearing a hat to protect himself. He chose a bucket hat, which became his trademark during his PGA Tour career.

Born in New Jersey, Colbert went to Kansas State on a football scholarship. He turned all his attention to golf after an injury and was runner-up in the NCAA Championship in 1964, and two years later was on the PGA Tour.

He won the first of his eight PGA Tour titles in the 1969 Monsanto Invitational Open. He had a pair of top 5s in the majors in 1974, a tie for fourth in the Masters and tied for fifth in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

His best season on the PGA Tour was in 1983 when he won twice and was 15th on the money list.

Colbert was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1996, had surgery to remove his prostate and was back on the course two years later, winning The Transamerica.

He also was active in business. According to the PGA Tour, he bought his first golf course in Las Vegas in 1980. Jim Colbert Golf grew to own 23 golf courses, had 700 employees and gross revenue of $50 million.

Colbert, who lived the latter part of his life in Las Vegas, kept ties to Kansas State. The men’s and women’s golf teams play at Colbert Hills Golf Club in Manhattan, Kansas, which he helped design and opened in 2000.

Colbert was inducted into the Kansas State Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991, the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame in 2019.

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

FILE - Golfer Jim Colbert during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Manhattan, Kan., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner,File)

FILE - Jim Colbert watches his drive on the tenth hole during the opening round of the 2006 U.S. Senior Open Championship golf tournament at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan., July 6, 2006. (AP Photo/Larry Smith,File)