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, sport 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 yr, the Dodgers have been choosing Betts up amid a career-worst season on the plate.
On Sunday afternoon, with a rivalry sport and division lead hanging within the steadiness, he returned the favor along with his largest 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 sequence sweep on Betts’ go-ahead house 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-game 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 very 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.
“Lastly, I did one thing good for the boys that’s with the bat. I really feel like I’ve performed an honest job with the glove. However the bat, I haven’t actually been in a position to assist a lot. So simply good to assist with that.”
Mookie Betts hits a solo house 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 workforce 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 prime of the sixth and eighth to make it a 4-4 sport.
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 had been nearly fully out of pitching choices, having burned 5 relievers to get the earlier 9 outs.
However then, Betts delivered. In a 2-and-0 rely in opposition to Suarez, he launched a center-cut fastball deep into the left-field stands.
“To get into a very good rely and switch that fastball round, that’s the Mookie we like,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned.
“He was in a position to keep by it, back-spin the ball, hit it over the fence in an enormous state of affairs,” Freeman echoed. “Been saying it the previous few weeks. Mookie Betts is gonna be Mookie Betts. Nobody right here is fearful about him.”
Which 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 potential contributing to distant career-lows in batting common (.242), OPS (.683) and residential runs (he’s on tempo for under 17).
“I don’t know easy methods to get by this,” Betts mentioned final month. “I’m working each day. Hopefully it turns.”
When mechanical tweaks and long-trusted swing cues didn’t repair the difficulty, Betts just 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 should chalk [this] up [as] not an awesome season,” Betts mentioned two weeks in the past, at the least so far as his general numbers had been involved. “However I can exit and assist the boys win each evening. Get an RBI. Make a play. Do one thing. I’m going to should 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 battle, 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 fearful about his numbers, or a statline gone saving.
“Simply making an attempt to do one thing productive,” he mentioned. “It undoubtedly helps to not carry burdens from earlier at-bats.”
Mookie Betts runs the bases after hitting a solo house 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 workforce’s Shohei Ohtani-inspired finger swoosh to the dugout, and a pair emphatic salutes to each teammates and the group.
“To take the strain off — making an attempt to get well from the season and get extra micro, simply sport to sport, at-bat to at-bat — it’s a greater high quality of life,” Roberts mentioned. “Actually, we’re seeing the efficiency from Mookie.”
And consequently, the Dodgers (71-53) had a triumphant ending to their pivotal rivalry sequence sweep of the Padres (69-55), going from second place Friday to on their lonesome in first once more.
“We simply performed a very good model of baseball this weekend,” Betts mentioned. “However once more, we nonetheless obtained a protracted method to go.”
Lengthy earlier than the dramatic ending, Sunday had began just like the earlier two video games. The Dodgers had been getting good pitching, with Glasnow putting out 4 of his first 5 batters whereas pumping elevated fastball velocity and producing silly swings along with his slider. The Padres had 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 prime 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 present the Dodgers full management of the sequence finale.
Within the prime 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 steer off the inning. And although Glasnow obtained out of a jam later within the inning, his fading command and rising 91-throw pitch rely 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 bother 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 again,” Padres supervisor Mike Shildt mentioned. “Might have simply mentioned, you understand what, it’s not our day once more, down 4.”
Tying the sport, nonetheless, was as shut because the Padres would get.
Dealing with the two-on, one-out jam, Roberts summoned Alex Vesia to try 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 free with the sport veering towards extras.
Vesia, nonetheless, had a special plan in thoughts.
“They advised me I used to be performed. And I used to be identical to, ‘No,’” Vesia declared. “So I advised Doc, I walked as much as him and mentioned, ‘Hey, if we’re up [in the ninth], I need it.’ He was like, ‘OK, you bought it.’ Positive sufficient, Mook, bang, homers. Candy, let’s go.”
Certainly, simply when it appeared like all of the momentum the Dodgers had constructed this weekend was instantly fading, and the sequence would finish with them solely tied atop the standings, Betts as a substitute flipped the script along 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 sequence.
“To actually climate the final couple innings, and to get that huge hit off a very good nearer was huge,” Roberts mentioned. “Yeah, really feel rather a lot higher as we speak than per week in the past.”
