McAdam: Mookie Betts returns ... and all is right with the Red Sox

BALTIMORE -- Getting Mookie Betts back in their lineup isn't an instant cure-all for the Red Sox' offensive struggles of late.

But it sure is a nice start.

Fourteen games after being sidelined by a left abdominal strain, Betts was activated and placed in the lineup here Monday. It was the kind of return any team -- hot or cold, good or bad -- would welcome.



Betts went 1-for-5 in the Red Sox' 2-0, 12-inning victory over the Orioles. He was lifted in the bottom of the 11th because manager Alex Cora didn't want to push him too far in his first game back, but after the game, Betts said: "I'm fine, I'm ready to go (Tuesday).''

Before his season was interrupted on the final weekend of May, Betts was off to a fantastic start, leading the league in runs scored and total bases while tied for the league lead in homers. His numbers were so impressive, in fact, that some two weeks later, he was still among the league leaders in a host of offensive categories.

Not that his contributions came solely in the batter's box. Betts is among the best defenders in the game, and a number of times, the Red Sox were forced to play converted infielders (Brock Holt), or worse yet, converted catchers (Blake Swihart) in his place.

Betts is also both the fastest and best baserunner the Sox have, and losing his speed and aggressiveness at the top of the lineup was a major blow.

Simply put, Betts is on the short list of the game's best overall players, period. That the Sox barely played above .500 (8-6) in his absence speaks volumes about his importance to the team.

Initially, Betts was said to have preferred a one-game rehab assignment to regain his timing at the plate. But after going through a fairly rigorous workout at Fenway Sunday, then taking additional swings here Monday, the Sox were convinced that the time was right to activate. It may or may not have helped that Betts owns a career 1.004 OPS at Camden Yards.

The danger with any sort of "side'' injury -- the Sox have steadfastly refused to classify this as an oblique -- is that it can get aggravated easily, resulting in an even longer convalescence. Such muscle pulls have been known to sideline players for weeks, and sometimes, months.

The Sox maintain Betts is fully recovered. "Just watching him, you can tell,'' said Alex Cora. "With the conviction he swung the last few days and what he went through, we're there. We're very comfortable with the decision we made. (Sunday) was a lot. He went through all the checkpoints, all the stations that he has before the games. He's in the J.D. Martinez program, so there's a lot of work. He did well, he did fine and he feels he's ready to go.''

(It should be noted that when it comes to giving clearance for injured players to return, the recent track record for the Red Sox medical staff is less than stellar. Recall that Eduardo Nunez twice returned from a knee injury last fall only to re-injure the knee in his first at-bat. And there remains questions about whether Dustin Pedroia, whose return to active duty lasted all of three games, was brought back prematurely.)

The Sox put their trust in Betts, who indicated he was ready -- even without the benefit of a rehab assignment.

"Throughout this whole thing, I (didn't feel) bat because it wasn't a big tear or anything,'' said Betts. "It was anything that I had to return from; it was a matter of letting it heal.''

Because baseball is, at the bottom, such an individual sport based on one-on-one matchups, it's difficult to say that any one player can make others around him better, the way it might be said in a more collaborative game like basketball or hockey.

But this much can be said without fear of contradiction: the return of Betts makes the Red Sox lineup better.

With Betts returning to the leadoff spot, the Sox can move Andrew Benintendi -- who did a remarkable impression of Betts in the leadoff spot for the last two weeks -- back to his customary No. 2 spot, while dropping Xander Bogaerts from second to fifth.

The deeper the lineup, the tougher the Sox are for opposing pitchers. Heading into Monday's game with the Orioles, that reflected a Top 5 in the Red Sox batting order with the following OPS numbers: 1.187 (Betts); .920 (Benintendi); 1.030 (Martinez); .956 (Mitch Moreland); .836 (Bogaerts).

What's been missing -- even with the sustained punch that Benintendi temporarily provided to the leadoff spot -- is the ''instant offense'' that Cora envisioned when he anointed Betts as his leadoff hitter last winter. From literally the first pitch of the first game of the season, when Betts hammered a ball to the deepest reaches of the Tropicana Field, only to robbed of a likely triple by Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, having Betts in the leadoff spot seemed to provide the Sox with a built-in advantage.

"He changes them when he's in there,'' noted an evaluator. "He gives them a different look, a swagger I guess. Not a lot of players can do that.''

The Red Sox survived without him. The bet is that they thrive now that's he's back.