Mookie Betts caps homecoming weekend with 3 hits including HR in Dodgers win
BOSTON – Mookie Betts was the homecoming king.
Betts’ capped his return to Boston with another three-hit game including a two-run home run over the Green Monster as the Dodgers beat the Boston Red Sox 7-4 Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park.
“Got a job to take care of. You have to separate business and emotions and I’ve learned from a couple people and especially Kobe when I got to talk to him … and I just put it into my repertoire,” Betts said.
“Obviously the emotions were there and I let them come, but I also let them go and you have to be able to separate it.”
Betts went 7 for 15 in the series against his former team with six runs scored and three-hit games Saturday and Sunday.
But the Red Sox shouldn’t look at it as Mookie’s revenge – he is doing it to everyone as he makes a run at a second MVP award. Sunday extended his hitting streak to 15 games — his second in the past month (his longest with the Dodgers).
Betts has at least one hit in 30 of his past 31 games, going a torrid 52 for 124 (.419) in that time with 13 doubles and eight home runs. Sunday was his 10th multi-hit game during this latest streak and the homer was his 35th of the season, matching his career-high set last season.
“It’s remarkable how he was able to be accessible but not feel overwhelmed as far as the people that he had to see and obligations, to still focus on the job at hand,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s not easy to do. I’m sure he’s going to sleep well tonight. I’m sure he’s physically and emotionally exhausted. But, man, he’s a pro and he does a great job of compartmentalizing and it’s fun when a superstar, when you have expectations for a superstar and he delivers and he did that.”
The fans in Boston have seen this Betts before during his MVP season in 2018 — a high bar Betts set for himself and is approaching again this season.
“I don’t know, man — 2018, that was crazy,” Betts said. “If I can get anything near it, then I know I’ve done something good.
“It’ll be cool to win. It’ll be super cool. I’d be lying if I said it wouldn’t be cool. But the No. 1 thing is winning the World Series, winning the division and playing well.”
The Dodgers’ other MVP candidate, Freddie Freeman, had a three-hit game of his own, including two doubles, running his major-league leading total to 50. That is the most in Los Angeles Dodger history, surpassing Shawn Green’s 49 in 2003. The overall franchise record is 52 by Johnny Frederick with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1929.
Sunday was the 13th time this season Betts and Freeman both had multi-hit games in the same game. The Dodgers have won 12 of those.
“I don’t know, man. I really don’t notice it,” Betts said of the way he and Freeman are carrying the offense. “Maybe because I’m playing. Maybe because my expectations of Freddie are so high. I really don’t pay attention to it. I just know that when the top rolls back around, we’re going to make something happen and that’s just kind of what we do.”
James Outman was at the other temperature extreme from the super-heated Betts. After bouncing into a forceout in his first at-bat Sunday, Outman had just two hits but 12 strikeouts in his previous 20 at-bats.
But Outman homered into the home bullpen in the fourth inning and drove in another run with an RBI single in the seventh.
The combination of Betts and Outman gave Gavin Stone a cushion in his role as the bulk pitcher. After Caleb Ferguson handled the first inning, Stone pitched into the eighth.
For six innings, it was easily his best performance in the big leagues. He allowed just to two runs on three hits before Justin Turner and Adam Duvall hit back-to-back home runs to start the eighth and end his day.
“He filled up the strike zone,” Roberts said. “They hadn’t seen him before. I thought the fastball was really good today. He was getting strike one. The changeup was really good. He’s got that cutter he’s been working on that. I thought (the cutter) was good against the right-handed hitters and he had a good rhythm.”
If the Red Sox had seen Stone before, they might not have recognized this version immediately. Stone earned his first major-league victory with a pitch mix that had been tweaked during his seven weeks back in Triple-A — he added a cutter and altered his slider.
But the big difference, Stone said, was regaining his confidence after being beaten up in three May starts with the Dodgers.
“Yeah, mentally it was tough,” Stone said of his big-league baptism.
“It was huge (to re-set in OKC). I got to get back into the swing of loving baseball again. That’s what I did, and it’s been a huge help.”