Dodgers Interview: Mookie on Setting the Tone for a Deep October Run

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers started October the way you want to start October. A 10–5 win, loud swings, and a starter who set a calm pace from pitch one. Mookie Betts did his part at the top, going 2-for-4 with a walk and a whole lot of traffic for the middle. Afterward he kept the message steady. Enjoy the win, keep the rhythm, and do it again tomorrow.

Asked what Blake Snell’s seven innings did for the group, Mookie didn’t hesitate. “He did amazing,” he said. “You could see it. He essentially put us on his back.” The tone, he added, was set right away. “Blake was in control and that lets us get going offensively.”

The plan against Hunter Greene was simple and aggressive. “Just being ready to hit,” Betts said. “We know he throws a lot of strikes. His hometown, so we knew he’d be ready to go. We were ready to go and Sho leading off there kind of gave us some energy.”

The lineup has been trending up for a couple of weeks and Mookie liked how it carried over. “Every game is important,” he said. “It’s really important for us to have good at-bats, believe in ourselves, pass the baton, just play Dodgers baseball.” The early jolt from Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández set the tone for that approach to stick. “I don’t have any more words for Sho,” Mookie said. “Teo definitely helped us a lot, adding on and tacking on runs. It makes the lineup so much longer. Having him feel normal is huge for us.”

On the quick turnaround from Sunday, Betts said the one-day break kept things moving. “I wouldn’t say it’s easier. It’s still playoff baseball,” he said. “Maybe there’s a little more rhythm. You don’t really get out of rhythm. You don’t have to find it in practice. It’s kind of neat to just keep playing. A bye would be nice as well.”

Getting an early lead matters for the mind and the style of play. “It makes everything a lot easier,” Mookie said. “It’s never going to be easy, but playing downhill lets you be a little more aggressive. You can take a few more chances that help you win versus playing defensive. Once you start playing defensive, it gets really hard.”

He also pointed to the patient at-bats that opened the floodgates in the middle innings. “It was really good today,” Betts said of the team approach after back-to-back walks set up a big swing. “We’re going to go through our ups and downs. We didn’t stink all year. We went through a stretch. Hopefully we got it out of us and we can turn around tomorrow.”

Now comes the closeout chance in Game 2, a spot Betts has seen plenty of. The mindset, he said, does not change. “No different than today,” he said. “You can’t add extra pressure. You can’t make it more than what it is, which is a game. It’s still a game. You still have to do the same things. We’re not going to suddenly become Superman and do different things. We have to play the same game.”

That is Mookie’s lane. Set the table, keep the heartbeat low, and remind the room that the recipe does not need tweaks. “We were ready to go,” he said of Game 1. “Now we do it again.”

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