The last time that Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier collected a hit in a professional baseball game was on October 15, 2016. It was during Game-1 of the 2016 National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field and it was a home run.

Exactly 303 days would pass before the now 35-year-old Phoenix, Arizona native and 11-year MLB veteran would collect his next hit in a live game, having spent the entire 2017 season to this point on the disabled list after suffering a mild disk herniation in his lower back during spring training.

On Monday night in his only his second rehabilitation game with the Dodgers Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, the popular Dodger outfielder collected not one but two base hits, both singles and one driving in a run.

“It’s going to come slow. This is only the second game-style action that I’ve faced in four months, four and a half months,” Ethier said, after his five innings and three at-bats on Monday night. “I had a few simulated games coming into this in Arizona before but not that real game action where you go out there and run around.”

Ethier said that getting his timing back is the most important thing during his rehab assignment. Judging by the results on Monday night, he is on the fast track in doing so. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Even though Monday night’s game was only his second live-game action since spring training, the importance of these rehab games is not lost on him.

“For me this is spring training,” Ethier said. “As you can see, it’s kind of similar to [what] I face in spring training – one game on, have a couple of at-bats, have a day off, come back, play a few innings, get a couple at-bats, get the feel, get the rhythm again, getting your legs back under you for a nine-inning game.”

In his first rehab game with the Quakes on Saturday, Ethier was the designated hitter and went 0-for-3 at the plate with a strikeout. And even though he struck out in his first at-bat on Monday night while in the lineup as the Quakes left fielder, he singled in each of his next two at-bats – once to right-center field and the other an opposite field RBI single to left.

“I think that’s the biggest thing right now is just getting the timing back,” Ethier said. “It’s always easier said than done, but if you can just hold on to that feeling. I do a lot of film work with my video – looking at stuff from the past – and try to pick up some keys and ques, but each year is different so you just go out there seeing live pitching, seeing game situations, repricating situations out there, how they’re going to pitch to you and just playing the game and going through it. There’s not a certain number. Everyone wants to know ‘what’s the number? Is it twenty, twenty-five, thirty, fifty at-bats?’ No, it’s just when you feel good you feel good.

“I’ve had years when I’m ready the second week of spring training, I’ve had years when I’m still in April, the end of April and I’m still trying to find it,” he added. “So it’s one where you just try to every day build on the next, and that’s what I did from Saturday to today.”

Ethier is very well aware of the tremendous success the Dodgers are having this season without him and doesn’t expect to simply rejoin the team and displace anyone. That being said, he hopes to be finished with his rehab assignment when rosters expand on September 1.

“I think our goal is September first to get back in there when rosters expand and figure out a way to keep climbing the ladder of competition,” said Ethier. “Here for the next couple weeks to get to that point and play the rest of the season out with the team in September.”

As for what his team is doing and has done all season long, the 6′-2″ / 210-pound veteran outfielder had the highest of praise for the entire organization from top to bottom.

“It’s unbelievable. It’s just a testament to how no one’s going to take anything for granted or look behind them,” Ethier said. “It’s good, competitive, hard baseball. That’s what they’ve been preaching my whole time here as a Dodger.

“You get the right mix of people upstairs and the right mix of people in the dugout calling the shots, and the right mix of players that are coming up and some old ones that are still around that help that attitude and mentality moving forward and you can see how it breeds success,” Ethier continued. “It’s infectious and that’s what’s going on with everyone who comes up – knows what their role is – and you don’t ask too much of one guy but just enough of what they’re capable of doing, and you can see that no one is out of their comfort zone.”