WASHINGTON — Mookie Betts was pretty productive for a guy who got called in to work on his day off.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had planned to give Betts a brief respite during the Dodgers’ stretch of 31 games in 30 days by leaving his name out of the lineup on Tuesday. But Cody Bellinger woke up not feeling well and the plan changed. Bellinger sat instead and Roberts joked that he “convinced” Betts to play.

Betts didn’t swing like a man whose arm had been twisted. He reached base four times, had three hits including two home runs and drove in four runs as the Dodgers pounded the overmatched Washington Nationals for a second night, 9-4, their ninth win in their past 10 games.

“He’s getting on base. He’s slugging. God, he’s playing MVP-type baseball. He really is,” Roberts said after the game. “It’s all about Mookie right now. He’s just carrying us right now, playing excellent baseball.

“Over the last 30 days, it’s as good as anybody on the planet. Yeah, it’s as good as I’ve seen him. He’s scoring runs at a crazy clip. He’s on base. He’s slugging at a ridiculous clip too. And he’s playing Gold Glove defense too. He’s making the game look a lot easier than it is.”

Betts didn’t hit a home run in his first 12 games this season but now leads the National League with 12. Only New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has hit more this season (17).

By scoring twice, Betts extended his streak to 12 consecutive games scoring at least one run. That ties the Los Angeles era record (Rafael Furcal in 2010) and is one short of the franchise record.

Betts’ homers came in the second inning (a three-run shot) and fourth (solo) and landed in nearly the same spot down the left-field line. He has extra-base hits in each of his past six games – three short of the franchise record shared by John Roseboro and Jack Fournier.

“Just having fun and enjoying the game, man, and taking it one pitch and one at-bat at a time,” Betts said. “Like I said, I’m just laughing and joking and really sitting back and enjoying it.”

Over his past 12 games, Betts is batting .408 (20 for 49) with seven doubles, seven home runs, 18 runs scored, 17 RBIs and six multi-hit games.

Roberts said he has never seen a better Betts and you might have to go back to his American League MVP season of 2018 to find a similar run by him.

“I don’t know. Probably in ’18,” Betts agreed. “It’s just, you know, I had to sit back and remember who I was and who I can be now. You really don’t want to look too far in the past and try to be that guy. You just want to be in the moment and be who you are now. But I had to take a look back and see what I was capable of and just remind myself what I’m capable of and just have fun and do it.”

That doesn’t mean Betts is going to get caught up in trying to match his 2018 season.

“No. No. Never,” he said. “When you start to try and do that, that’s a big hole. I don’t care about the numbers, man. The numbers are going to be the numbers. They’re going to go up. They’re gonna go down. They’re going to be whatever. It’s just have fun and play and let the numbers be the numbers at the end of the year and then you can take a look at it. But right now man, all I care about is scoring runs and getting some RBIs.”

He’s done enough of that for now – Roberts still plans to give him a day off, on Wednesday now.

“We’re going to see how Cody feels coming in (Wednesday),” Roberts said. “I don’t want to renege on the deal but, gosh, he makes us a lot better ballclub when he’s in there.”

Trea Turner has been on his own hot streak recently. His two-run home run in the first inning Tuesday extended his latest hitting streak to 16 games, during which he is 22 for 63 (.349).

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Chris Taylor also hit a two-run home run as the Dodgers scored seven runs in the first three innings against right-hander Josiah Gray, shipped to Washington in last year’s trade for Max Scherzer and Trea Turner.

The Dodgers scored in each of the first four innings Tuesday and five of the first six, giving them 19 runs in the first 15 innings of their visit to Nationals Park.

That gave starting pitcher Walker Buehler plenty of margin for error as he continues to try and find himself.

Six of the first nine Nationals batters reached base against Buehler – four singles, a double and a walk – and three scored (helped in part by a throwing error by Taylor in center field). The next 11 went down in order and Buehler retired 15 of the final 17 he faced in his six innings.

“They got on him early. They got on the heater when he was trying to settle into the game,” Roberts said. “Then after that first inning, I thought he settled in nicely. As the game went on, I thought the pitch mix was better. He was more efficient. It wasn’t looking great for him early. But for him to go out there and still get through six innings – I know he’s not feeling his best. But we needed those six innings.”