Mookie Betts' late three-run blast lifts Dodgers over Giants
Mookie Betts saved the day.
But the Dodgers bullpen made Thursday a lot harder than it needed to be.
After the Dodgers led by five runs early, then blew it by giving up six straight runs to the San Francisco Giants in the seventh and eighth innings, Betts came to the plate with the score tied in the bottom of the eighth.
There were two runners on and two outs.
And in the night’s critical moment, the former MVP delivered.
Betts hit a three-run home run to left field, putting the Dodgers back in front in a 9-6 win.
The moment the ball left his bat, an MLB season-high crowd of 53,165 at Dodger Stadium jumped to its feet. Long before the no-doubter landed in the left-field pavilion, the fans all knew it was gone.
“That,” manager Dave Roberts said, “is why he's one of the best in the game.”
In the second-half opener, however, such heroics shouldn’t have been needed for the Dodgers (61-30) .
After three innings, the team led 5-0 — getting a solo home run from Freddie Freeman in the first, an RBI double from Trayce Thompson in the second and a three-run rally aided by a missed fly ball from Giants outfielder Luis González in the third.
Until the top of the sixth, the Dodgers hadn’t given up a hit, with Mitch White pitching five scoreless innings for a rotation that already had the lowest ERA in the majors.
But then in the seventh, Phil Bickford gave up a solo home run to Evan Longoria and allowed two more runners to reach base without recording an out.
He was replaced by left-hander Alex Vesia, who hit a batter to load the bases, then threw a two-out, two-strike fastball down the middle of the plate to Darin Ruf.
The Giants slugger didn’t miss. His line drive to left cleared the wall for a grand slam that tied the score.
In the eighth inning, set-up man Evan Phillips was summoned — a right-hander who, in lieu of injuries to Blake Trienen, Tommy Kahnle, Brusdar Graterol and Daniel Hudson, has become the most trusted arm in the bullpen of late.
The right-hander entered the game with a 1.50 ERA. He hadn’t given up a run in his previous 11 appearances.
But after a leadoff walk to Wilmer Flores, an opposite-field double by Joc Pederson and an intentional one-out free pass to González that loaded the bases, Phillips couldn’t take advantage of a right-on-right matchup against Thairo Estrada.
He missed the zone with three sliders and a fastball, issuing a third walk that forced home a run and gave the Giants a 6-5 lead.
“I thought we put guys in the right spots,” Roberts said. “They just didn't make pitches when they had to.”
Roberts downplayed any bigger concerns facing the bullpen, which is hopeful of getting Graterol back in the not-too-distant future — he will be out with shoulder inflammation at least another week, but Roberts claimed “it shouldn't be much longer” than that — plus Treinen, Kahnle and Danny Duffy for the stretch run of the season.
“I think we've done a good job of piecing together [the bullpen],” Roberts said. “So I'm not going to make too much out of tonight."
In the next half-inning, the lineup helped take away the sting.
With one out, Gavin Lux doubled down the left-field line.
Two batters later, Thompson drove a game-tying triple off the wall in center field.
“I thought it was going to get out,” he said, adding with a laugh: “Got to get an extra workout in tomorrow or something.”
Cody Bellinger extended the inning in the next at-bat, taking four straight balls to put runners on the corners.
Then Betts came to the plate, got a 1-and-1 changeup down the middle from Jarlín García and sent his 21st home run of the season sailing over the wall in left.
“Seeing the ball go in the corwd and the crowd going crazy,” Thompson said. “Those are some cool moments.”
A more reserved Betts added: “I was just looking for a good pitch to hit, and I got one. … It’s a big win for us.”
The right fielder, who also had a walk and stolen base in the game, wasn’t done either, recording the final out of the game with an all-out diving catch on a ball hit by Joc Pederson in the ninth.
A dazzling finish to a victory the bullpen almost gave away.
Turner exits with abdominal injury
Justin Turner exited the game after the top of the eighth inning with what the Dodgers said was abdominal tightness. Roberts wasn’t sure how Turner got hurt, but said the third baseman thinks “that we got ahead of it.” He is questionable to play Friday.
Starters nearing return
Roberts had encouraging news about several injured starting pitchers Thursday.
Andrew Heaney made a rehabilitation start Thursday, putting him on track to return from a shoulder injury as soon as next week.
Dustin May is scheduled for his own rehab outing Friday, a significant step in his recovery from Tommy John surgery that keeps him on pace for a mid-August season debut.
Walker Buehler is still expected back from a flexor tendon strain in his elbow sometime in September, his recovery still "trending in the right direction,” Roberts said, even though the right-hander has not yet resumed throwing yet.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
