It was a sight that’s been all too uncommon this season, coming exactly when the Dodgers wanted it most.
Mookie Betts, bat in hand, recreation on the road. A swing as clean because it was sturdy, his two-handed end sending the ball out of sight.
For a lot of this 12 months, the Dodgers have been choosing Betts up amid a career-worst season on the plate.
On Sunday afternoon, with a rivalry recreation and division lead hanging within the stability, he returned the favor together with his greatest second in what felt like ages.
After as soon as main by 4, then watching the San Diego Padres claw again to tie the rating, the Dodgers accomplished a weekend collection sweep on Betts’ go-ahead residence run within the eighth.
The no-doubt, 394-foot, stadium-shaking blast despatched the Dodgers to a 5-4 win and gave them a two recreation lead within the Nationwide League West; and had Betts skipping across the bases with a swagger that has been lacking for a lot of the marketing campaign.
“It’s been a long time,” Betts mentioned — since he had delivered such a clutch hit, appeared a lot like his previous self on the dish, and trusted a swing that has annoyed him for the reason that earliest days of the season.
“Finally, I did something good for the boys that’s with the bat. I feel like I’ve done a decent job with the glove. But the bat, I haven’t really been able to help much. So just good to help with that.”
Mookie Betts hits a solo residence run for the Dodgers in eighth inning Sunday in opposition to the Padres.
As Betts got here to the plate within the eighth, Dodger Stadium stood nonetheless in a silent, tense trance.
Within the first inning, the staff had ambushed Padres starter Yu Darvish for 4 runs on lengthy balls from Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages.
However from there, a crowd of 49,189 watched the Padres slowly come again.
Tyler Glasnow fizzled after two electrical opening innings, leaving the sport on the finish of the fifth after permitting two runs.
A patchwork Dodgers bullpen couldn’t maintain off the Padres, giving up runs within the high of the sixth and eighth to remodel to make it a 4-4.
At that time, San Diego had the benefit. Their league-best bullpen was contemporary. Their nearer, Robert Suarez, was on the mound. And the Dodgers have been nearly utterly out of pitching choices, having burned 5 relievers to get the earlier 9 outs.
However then, Betts delivered. In a 2-and-0 depend in opposition to Suarez, he launched a center-cut fastball deep into the left-field stands.
“To get into a good count and turn that fastball around, that’s the Mookie we like,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned.
“He was able to stay through it, back-spin the ball, hit it over the fence in a big situation,” Freeman echoed. “Been saying it the last few weeks. Mookie Betts is gonna be Mookie Betts. No one here is worried about him.”
That may have been true of his teammates. However for a lot of the summer season, Betts appeared to be battling fixed self-doubt.
His swing by no means felt proper, off from the beginning after a late-spring abdomen virus that zapped him of virtually 20 kilos. His typical manufacturing by no means materialized, with an absence of energy or constant on-base capacity contributing to distant career-lows in batting common (.242), OPS (.683) and residential runs (he’s on tempo for less than 17).
“I don’t know how to get through this,” Betts mentioned final month. “I’m working every day. Hopefully it turns.”
When mechanical tweaks and long-trusted swing cues didn’t repair the difficulty, Betts lately determined to undertake a brand new mindset.
On the behest of Roberts, and the encouragement of his spouse Brianna, Betts started this month by reframing his perspective.
“We’re going to have to chalk [this] up [as] not a great season,” Betts mentioned two weeks in the past, no less than so far as his general numbers have been involved. “But I can go out and help the boys win every night. Get an RBI. Make a play. Do something. I’m going to have to shift my focus there.”
Of late, the shift appeared to be working.
From Aug. 5-13, he went 14 for 35 over an eight-game hitting streak with seven RBIs, three extra-base hits and solely two strikeouts.
This weekend had been extra of a wrestle, with Betts going hitless in his first 9 at-bats.
However when he got here up within the eighth, he had psychological readability. He wasn’t frightened about his numbers, or a statline gone saving.
“Just trying to do something productive,” he mentioned. “It definitely helps to not carry burdens from previous at-bats.”
Mookie Betts runs the bases after hitting a solo residence run within the eighth inning for the Dodgers in opposition to the Padres on Sunday.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Occasions)
Because the ball sailed out, touchdown in a left-field pavilion of rollicking followers, Betts virtually floated across the bases, giving a two-handed wave to the bullpen, the staff’s Shohei Ohtani-inspired finger swoosh to the dugout, and a pair emphatic salutes to each teammates and the group.
“To take the pressure off — trying to recover from the season and get more micro, just game to game, at-bat to at-bat — it’s a better quality of life,” Roberts mentioned. “Certainly, we’re seeing the performance from Mookie.”
And in consequence, the Dodgers (71-53) had a triumphant ending to their pivotal rivalry collection sweep of the Padres (69-55), going from second place Friday to on their own in first once more.
“We just played a good brand of baseball this weekend,” Betts mentioned. “But again, we still got a long way to go.”
Lengthy earlier than the dramatic ending, Sunday had began just like the earlier two video games. The Dodgers have been getting good pitching, with Glasnow putting out 4 of his first 5 batters whereas pumping elevated fastball velocity and producing silly swings together with his slider. The Padres have been making errors; most notably, Freddy Fermín getting gunned down by Pages from heart whereas making an attempt to leg out a double within the high of the third, turning what might have been a crooked-number rally into solely a one-run inning.
Darvish, in the meantime, made a pair of two-strike errors within the first, leaving a fastball as much as Freeman for a three-run homer earlier than failing to bury a splitter to Pages for a solo shot.
All of it appeared to provide the Dodgers full management of the collection finale.
Within the high of the fifth, nonetheless, issues started to shift.
Dodgers beginning pitcher Tyler Glasnow delivers within the first inning in opposition to the Padres on Sunday.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Occasions)
First, Ramón Laureano lifted a solo drive simply over the wall in proper to guide off the inning. And although Glasnow obtained out of a jam later within the inning, his fading command and rising 91-throw pitch depend prompted Roberts to go to the bullpen with nonetheless 12 outs to go.
Within the sixth, Anthony Banda gave up one run on a pair of doubles (the second, a floating fly ball into the right-field nook from Ryan O’Hearn that slow-footed Teoscar Hernández couldn’t monitor down).
And although Blake Treinen stranded a runner at third within the seventh — thanks in no small half to a beneficiant strike name in opposition to Manny Machado that negated a stroll — extra hassle arose within the eighth, after Alexis Díaz began by hitting a batter and giving up a double to Laureano on a line drive to heart.
“Man, fought our tail off to come back,” Padres supervisor Mike Shildt mentioned. “Could have easily said, you know what, it’s not our day again, down four.”
Tying the sport, nonetheless, was as shut because the Padres would get.
Going through the two-on, one-out jam, Roberts summoned Alex Vesia to attempt to get out of the inning. The left-hander retired each batters he confronted, with solely a floor ball from Jose Iglesias managing to degree the rating.
Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia, proper, celebrates with catcher Will Smith after the Dodgers’ 5-4 win over the Padres at Dodger Stadium on Sunday.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Occasions)
When Vesia returned to the dugout, Roberts phoned to the bullpen, instructing Justin Wrobleski to get unfastened with the sport veering towards extras.
Vesia, nonetheless, had a unique plan in thoughts.
“They told me I was done. And I was just like, ‘No,’” Vesia declared. “So I told Doc, I walked up to him and said, ‘Hey, if we’re up [in the ninth], I want it.’ He was like, OK, you got it.’ Sure enough, Mook, bang, homers. Sweet, let’s go.”
Certainly, simply when it appeared like all of the momentum the Dodgers had constructed this weekend was instantly fading, and the collection would finish with them solely tied atop the standings, Betts as an alternative flipped the script together with his second of salvation. Then Vesia returned to the mound for a clear ninth inning — punctuated by a strikeout of Machado that left him one for 11 within the collection.
“To really weather the last couple innings, and to get that big hit off a really good closer was big,” Roberts mentioned. “Yeah, feel a lot better today than a week ago.”
