only thing

Mookie Betts offered a new perspective Tuesday afternoon on his season-long slump, which is that it wasn’t a season-long slump.

In his view, it actually extended back to last season.

“I really haven’t been right since I came back from my hand last year,” Betts said.

Betts fractured his left hand in mid-June last season when he was struck by a 98-mph fastball. He was sidelined for almost two months.

Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts stares down at his batting gloves after flying out in the ninth inning against the Minnesota Twins at Dodger Stadium on July 22.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

“Think about it,” Betts said. “Go and look at it. I haven’t been right since.”

Betts was a MVP candidate when he went down, hitting .304 at the time. He batted .263 after his return, including .185 over the final 17 games of the regular season.

The troubles from last year have carried into this year, in which he’s batting a career-worst .236.

Betts wanted to clarify the point he was trying to make.

“I wasn’t blaming it on my hand or anything,” he said. “I was just saying since coming back, I haven’t done anything. It’s not just this season.”

Betts even went out of his way to downplay the severity of the injury or how it has affected him since.

“It wasn’t like I obliterated my hand,” he said. “It was a fracture.”

Betts pointed to how his grip strength was measured in spring training. The readings showed his grip was stronger than he was the previous year.

Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts makes a play during a game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium on Aug. 4.

(Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Times)

“There’s no correlation to anything,” he said. “I wish I could blame it on something, but nah.”

My visit to Dodger Stadium on Tuesday was prompted by what Betts told reporters after a weekend series in Tampa. The remarks in question were made when Betts was hitless in his last four games; the streak extended to a career-high five after another hitless game on Monday against the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I’ve done everything I can possibly do,” Betts told reporters. “It’s up to God at this point.”

In print, at least, he sounded defeated. His quotes, I told him, were depressing.

“I don’t know if you’re watching what’s going on, but it is depressing,” Betts said with a smile.

So he still had a sense of humor.

Which isn’t to say he’s not baffled or frustrated by his lack of production.

“It’s unexplainable,” Betts said. “I don’t know. It sucks. You know how in Space Jam, they take your superpowers away? Kind of what it feels like. I’ve never been there, never done that, so to have that happen, I don’t know how to get out of it.”

Without any specific answers, he’s doubled down on the general philosophy that made him one of baseball’s greatest players.

He’s worked.

“That’s the only thing I can do,” he said. “The only thing I can control is my effort and my attitude.”

When Betts says he’s done everything he could do to recapture his old magic, what he’s really saying is that he’s doing everything he can.

“I hit for three or four hours a day,” he said. “At some point, your body breaks down, but I’d rather break down than not give the effort.”

Betts showed up at Dodger Stadium before 1:30 p.m. on Monday for the series opener against the Cardinals, which started at 7:10. He hit in the batting cages, worked on his defense on the field, and participated in batting practice. He returned to the batting cages at around 4:30 and stayed there until 6:15.

“Just trying to relearn, going to the basics, relearning myself,” he said. “I had to go back and think about what I used to do in the minor leagues, [those] types of things.”

Betts might not have yet figured out the adjustments required from him to break out of his slump, but he’s also not out of ideas. He acknowledged he’s purposely sounded more clueless than he actually is in order to avoid discussing changes he’s trying to implement.

“There’s a bunch of stuff that I’m working on,” he said. “That’s stuff that, no offense to you guys, but you guys wouldn’t understand.”

The former right fielder didn’t think the workload at shortstop was the source of his problems, and he didn’t think his batspeed had declined in the last couple of years, as data from baseball’s tracking system had indicated.

“I haven’t hit the ball solid,” Betts said. “Naturally, you slow down because you try to hit the ball solid.”

While the experiment of deploying Betts as a leadoff hitter ended after only two weeks, manager Dave Roberts said he was committed to batting him near the top of the lineup.

“If that’s not confidence from a manager to a player,” Roberts said, “I don’t know what is.”

Betts rewarded Roberts’ faith on Tuesday in a 12-6 victory over the Cardinals on Tuesday, as he was three for four with a double, a walk and three runs. The three-hit game was his first in almost two months.

Betts refused to read too much into the performance.

“It’s good to get the results, but it’s one game,” he said. “Every time we talk about [a good game], I go 0 for 20 after. So we’ll see about tomorrow.”

He departed the stadium uncertain of what the results would be the next day, but he knew what the process would be. He would continue to work and continue to search for answers.

Felix Baumgartner lived to leap, becoming the first person to fall faster than the speed of sound during a 24-mile skydiving adventure through the stratosphere in 2012.

On Thursday, the Austrian daredevil died at age 56 while engaged in a far less intense activity, crashing into the side of a hotel swimming pool while paragliding in Porto Sant Elpidio, a town on central Italy’s eastern coast.

According to Sky Austria, he became ill before the crash. A hotel employee was hospitalized after sustaining injuries in the accident, the report stated.

“Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight,” Porto Sant Elpidio mayor Massimiliano Ciarpella said on Facebook.

Felix Baumgartner jumps out of the capsule during Red Bull Stratos on October 14, 2012.

(Red Bull Stratos/Red Bull via AP Images)

The man known as “Fearless Felix” made history 13 years ago when he parachuted down to a landing near Roswell, N.M., after being lifted 24 miles above Earth into the stratosphere in a capsule carried by a helium balloon. He set a record for fastest free fall, descending 127,852 feet at 843.6 mph and becoming the first human to break the sound barrier without the assistance of a vehicle.

As he exited his capsule and jumped into air that was 70 degrees below zero, Baumgartner gave a thumbs-up to onlookers watching a live stream online. He activated his parachute as he neared the ground.

“When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble, you do not think about breaking records anymore, you do not think of about gaining scientific data. The only thing you want is to come back alive,” he said after landing safely.

“Sometimes we have to get really high to see how small we are.”

Baumgartner’s altitude record stood for two years until Google executive Alan Eustace set new marks for the highest free-fall jump and greatest free-fall distance.

A former Austrian military parachutist, Baumgartner made numerous jumps from airplanes, skyscrapers and bridges. He also leaped from famed landmarks, including the Christ the Redeemer statue at the summit of Mount Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

He once flew across the English Channel in a carbon fiber wing after being dropped from a plane. The daredevil also performed as a helicopter stunt pilot in shows across Europe.

Baumgartner died while engaged in a more prosaic activity. Paragliders are lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched aircraft primarily used for recreation. The pilot sits suspended below a fabric wing.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a representative for Baumgartner’s longtime sponsor Red Bull said, “We are shocked and overwhelmed with sadness to hear the devastating news of our longtime friend Felix Baumgartner.

“Felix was ‘born to fly’ and was determined to push the limits. He was also smart, professional, thorough and meticulous, never leaving anything to chance. He was generous, giving much of his time to help and inspiring so many people.

“We remember Felix as a lovely person, devoted to his family and friends, to whom we send our heartfelt sympathy. Felix, you will be deeply missed.”

In an interview with Red Bull years ago, Baumgartner addressed his meticulous preparation before taking flight.

“We had a very long list of ‘what ifs,’ in other words eventualities that could happen and how we would deal with them in an emergency,” he said. “The list kept getting longer and longer. I was only afraid of the things that were not on the list, the things we had not thought of. To this day, I abort missions if the conditions are not right.”