LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers come home with a 2–0 lead and a chance to close on Wednesday night. Mookie Betts sounded calm. Confident. Very much in control of the moment. He praised the group, credited the details, and kept the focus on clean baseball at Dodger Stadium.
Asked if the club is peaking, Betts wasn’t going to make any grand pronouncements. “This is just a time that we have locked in together and been on the same page, moving in the same direction,” he said simply. “It’s hard to do during a regular season. It’s really hard to just focus on only winning when stats do matter for some guys. I think now, throwing those stats out the window, you really get to see some good, fun baseball. Some good backyard baseball. That’s what is making us good right now.”
On his transition to shortstop and the much-talked-about wheel play, he kept it humble. “I feel pretty good about it,” Betts said. “I’ve run that play before. It’s not like it’s a special play or anything. That’s been around forever. We just decided to run it in a big spot and we did a good job with it. The group of guys, we believe in each other and we trust each other. It’s really easy to communicate. It’s easy to know and believe your brother is going to do the right thing. If you’re in the right spot, he’s going to put you in the best spot to succeed. That’s what’s being shown out there.”
With a potential clincher on deck, he did not downplay urgency. “It’s very important to set the tone,” Betts said. “We know they got on the plane with full intentions of going back for a Game Five. We understand that. We know what’s in their locker room. We know what they’re capable of. We have to come out ready to go. We have to withstand the punches they’re going to throw and be able to throw some back. It’s not going to be easy. We just have to play good, clean baseball.”
He also sent a message to the home crowd. “We got to bring it,” he said. “Those guys definitely did. It was loud. My ears were ringing a couple times. That was a really good atmosphere to play baseball in. Really fun. You felt the love for the Phillies. You felt the love for the city. I expect Dodger Nation to come and show the love for us as a team and us as a city. I’m expecting it to be really loud.”
Leadership has followed him to short, but he credits a teammate for helping him master the role. “I’m not going to say I’ve grown into it. I think I’ve grown an understanding of it,” Betts said. “Really having Miggy has been one of the biggest blessings in disguise I’ve ever had. He is so knowledgeable of baseball in general, but especially shortstop. Having a teammate like that is different than having a coach. I can ask him questions during the game, in between pitches. He always has an answer and gives you his best every day. I couldn’t ask for anything better than having Miggy Rojas. He’s responsible for a lot of my mental successes this year.”
When asked about stars fighting slumps on the other side, he showed empathy born of experience. “It’s tough,” he said. “I’ve been there. No matter how much you want to say it’s a team thing, what you mean to the team never really goes away. We were the Dodgers because me and Freddie were doing our thing. That’s what made us tough. When you get in that rut it’s like quicksand. No matter what you do, you can’t get out of it. I didn’t get out of it. I have no advice. Good luck to those guys and we’ll see if they have the answer.”
The reaction to the wheel play surprised him more than the play itself. “Never,” he said when asked if he had ever gotten that much buzz. “I’ve never had that, especially for such a basic play. There’s only two or three plays and that’s one of them. It’s like the Lakers winning the NBA championship running a 2-3 zone. We ran it in a big spot and did it right. I think we executed it perfectly. It’s just the timing of it.”
Would he manage someday? Betts laughed, but left the door cracked. “I never thought I’d have this conversation,” he said. “It’s coming. I don’t know. We’ll see with the wife and the kids. We’ll see when that time comes. I’ve got a while, so we’ll turn that part of the brain off.”
As the team’s form has sharpened, he sees the value of the grind they endured. “It feels great,” he said. “We used all those situations earlier in the year to build us for now. There’s not a whole lot the game can throw at us that we haven’t been through. We went through a lot. We’ve seen everything and we kind of know what it takes. It’s fun when you get a group of guys that love each other and just want to win. A lot of good things happen.”
And the final word on the ninth-inning finish from Game Two. “Freddie’s play was way harder than the wheel play,” Betts said. “That was a tough situation. Sometimes you get a group of guys together and you figure out ways to win. It’s not always going to look pretty. Sometimes you go rogue. Sometimes you do things that are not normal. That’s the beauty of the knowledge we have on this team, the talent we have, and the love for each other.”
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