Mookie Betts still ill, down 18 pounds since start of spring training

When Dodgers All-Star Mookie Betts missed the team’s season-opening series in Japan with what was thought to be a stomach bug, it didn’t seem to be a big deal.

He flew home ahead of the team so that he could regain his strength and be ready for the Dodgers’ stateside opener on Thursday. But Betts’ status for the upcoming three-game series against the Detroit Tigers is still in question.

Betts says he is still throwing up whenever he tries to eat solid food, and he’s down to 157 pounds from the 175 he weighed at the start of spring training.

Doctors have yet to determine exactly what is wrong with the six-time Gold Glove outfielder, who is set to take over as the team’s starting shortstop this season. Betts says all blood work and tests have come back clean.

‘My body feels great. I’ve been able to work out. I’ve been able to do pretty much everything but eat, which is strange,’ he told MLB.com. ‘So the symptoms have kind of gone away, I just have to figure out how to get my stomach to kind of calm down.”

Betts was scheduled to start Sunday’s exhibition game against the Los Angeles Angels, but was scratched from the lineup about 90 minutes before first pitch.

Miguel Rojas stepped in at shortstop for the two games in Japan and continues to fill that spot in the lineup while Betts is out.

Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who also missed the Japan Series with rib soreness, was in the lineup for Sunday’s game and is expected to be good to go for Thursday.