Mookie Betts shows he’s ready for home run derby during Dodgers’ win over Royals
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dave Roberts continued to downplay Mookie Betts’ participation in the home run derby Friday afternoon, the Dodgers manager saying he was “excited” about the diminutive leadoff man’s decision to compete against some of baseball’s best sluggers at the All-Star Game, but adding, “I don’t think he’s gonna fare too well.”
Betts, the 5-foot-9, 170-pound outfielder/infielder, sent a not-to-subtle message to his skipper in Friday night’s 9-3 victory over the lowly Kansas City Royals in Kauffman Stadium: don’t underestimate me.
Betts crushed solo home runs in his first two at-bats for the 26th multi-homer game of his career, and though he failed to hit three homers in a game for the seventh time in his career, he added an RBI single in the fourth inning and an RBI double in the eighth to pace an 11-hit attack.
Speaking to Harold Reynolds on MLB Network, Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts says he’ll take part in the MLB Home Run Derby if he’s selected as an All-Star.
But when asked after the game if he might have to amend his derby prediction for Betts, Roberts said, “No, no, I’m not. I think I’ll still stand by it. But as long as he keeps hitting home runs for us, then I’ll take that.”
Rookie right-hander Bobby Miller threw 5 2/3 solid innings, giving up three runs and five hits, striking out four and walking one, to earn the win, rebounding from two brutal starts during which he was torched for 13 earned runs and 17 hits in 9 2/3 innings against the San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros.
Jason Heyward added three hits and two RBI to help the Dodgers win for the seventh time in nine games and go 12-12 in June, avoiding their first losing month since going 11-14 in April 2018.
The Dodgers did not arrive at their team hotel in Kansas City until about 5 a.m. local time after enduring a nearly two-hour weather delay and a late-night win in Colorado on Thursday and flying to Kansas City after the game.
But Betts provided a Five-Hour-Energy-like jolt to his team when he opened the game with the 45th leadoff homer of his career and ninth of the season, driving a 3-and-1 fastball from Royals right-hander Alec Marsh, who was making his major league debut, 422 feet to left field for a 1-0 lead.
“Yeah, we got in late, but that’s no excuse,” said Betts, who is batting .270 with a .923 on-base-plus slugging percentage, 22 homers, 18 doubles, 55 RBIs and 64 runs on the season. “We’ve got to be ready to play. Me leading off the game there with a homer gave us a jolt of energy, and we rode it for all nine [innings].”
Betts, who had two doubles, a walk and scored three runs in Thursday night’s 14-run, 18-hit shellacking of the Rockies, followed Miguel Rojas in the top of the third with a 402-foot line drive that stayed just inside the left-field foul pole for a 2-0 lead.
Kansas City trimmed the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the third when Drew Waters singled to left-center, stole second, took third on Nicky Lopez’s grounder to second and scored on Bobby Witt Jr.’s grounder to first.
Marsh did well to keep Betts in the park in the fourth inning, but the Dodgers second baseman still drove in a run with a two-out RBI single to center, capping a two-run rally that began with David Peralta’s walk and Jason Heyward’s RBI double to right-center.
Miller yielded another run in the bottom of the fourth when Maikel Garcia singled with one out, stole second and scored on former Huntington Beach High standout Nick Pratto’s RBI double to right-center that pulled the Royals to within 4-2.
J.D. Martinez had four hits, including a home run, and the Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies 14-3 on Thursday night after a weather delay.
But the Dodgers got that run back in the top of the fifth when Will Smith hit a fly ball down the right-field line that kicked up chalk for a triple — the ball was originally ruled foul, then overturned by instant replay — and scored on J.D. Martinez’s sacrifice fly to the wall in center field for a 5-2 lead.
The Royals parlayed a stolen base into a run for a third time in the sixth inning when Garcia singled with two outs, stole second, Pratto was hit by a pitch and Freddy Fermin rolled an RBI single to cut the deficit to 5-3. Dodgers left-hander Caleb Ferguson got pinch-hitter Edward Olivares to ground into an inning-ending fielder’s choice.
The Dodgers answered again in the seventh, taking advantage of Royals third baseman Garcia’s error on Martinez’s grounder and singles by Peralta and Heyward (RBI) to push the lead to 6-3.
They blew the game open with a three-run eighth, Rojas, Betts and Freddie Freeman contributing doubles and Peralta adding a sacrifice fly for a 9-3 lead.
Betts, who along with Sammy Sosa and Johnny Mize are the only players in baseball history with six three-homer games, had one more shot to hit a third homer with two outs in the top of the ninth, but he drew a walk.
“I just want to get some hits, keep us going, keep us putting points on the board and getting wins,” Betts said, when asked if it was hard not to think about hitting three homers after going deep twice in the first three innings. “That’s the most important thing right now.”
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