LOS ANGELES — Maybe it was the humidity but Mookie Betts sounded like a beaten man at the end of the Dodgers’ three-game series in Tampa last weekend.
“I’m out of answers,” Betts said when questioned – again – about the worst offensive season of his career. “I’ve done everything I can possibly do. It’s up to God at this point.”
Divine intervention or not, Betts has come in out of the wilderness. Since snapping a career-long 0-for-22 Tuesday, he has gone 6 for 11 including his first home run since July 5.
That homer, a two-run drive off Max Scherzer in the fifth inning Friday, was the decisive blow in a Hall of Fame matchup between Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw, sending the Dodgers on their way to a 5-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays Friday night.
No longer the hard-throwing young pups who stepped in for another pair of future Hall of Famers (Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux) and squared off for the first time in September 2008, the greybeard versions of Kershaw and Scherzer went a very similar six innings in their fifth career matchup.
Kershaw gave up seven hits, walked one and struck out four. Four years older than the 37-year-old Kershaw, Scherzer gave up six hits, walked three and struck out five.
Back-to-back singles by Shohei Ohtani (his first of three hits in the game) and Betts and a two-out walk loaded the bases in the first inning. But Teoscar Hernandez swung and missed at two fastballs down the middle, fouled off one slider then chased another one into the dirt of the left-hand batter’s box. Scherzer was off the hook and retired the next eight batters in order.
Kershaw, meanwhile, found himself in trouble in the second inning when Bo Bichette dribbled a 56.3 ground ball down the first-base line. Freddie Freeman moved to his left, but the ball went under his reach and into right field for a double.
Three consecutive singles drove in a run and loaded the bases with one out for Myles Straw. Betts got Kershaw out of trouble with a diving catch of Straw’s liner and a quick throw to second for an inning-ending double play.
It was one of three double plays started by Betts Friday. But it wasn’t his biggest moment of the night.
That came in the fifth inning after Andy Pages seemed to derail a scoring opportunity with bad baserunning.
After drawing a leadoff walk from Scherzer, Pages took off on a pitch that Alex Freeland popped into foul territory. First baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. came in to make the catch but Pages was still near second base, apparently unaware the ball had been caught. He couldn’t get back to first in time, the double play clearing the bases for Ohtani.
But Ohtani doubled to the wall in right-center field and Betts got a hanging slider from Scherzer and drove it into the left-field pavilion.
That one-run lead swelled by three in a seventh inning that featured just one hit – an Ohtani single off Guerrero’s glove – three walks (including one with the bases loaded), a sacrifice fly and a run-scoring fielder’s choice on a Betts grounder with the bases loaded.
That was Betts’ third RBI of the game. He had a total of three runs driven in over his previous 19 games.
