TORONTO — The Dodgers took one on the chin in Game 1, and Mookie Betts met it with the same straight-ahead mindset he’s carried all year. A long series is still a long series, and there will be plenty of chances for good nights coming up. But there was no hiding it: Friday night was a mess in the middle innings.
“Turn the page. It’s one game,” Betts said of the defeat. “Nothing we can do about it now. It’s over. We just have to focus on tomorrow.”
Toronto used a parade of arms after rookie Trey Yesavage, and the Dodgers got a decent look at several of them. Betts didn’t dress that up either. “I’m sure if you want to make it valuable, then sure,” he said of the scouting benefit. “There weren’t that many high-leverage situations. I guess [Seranthony] Domínguez came in, and I forget who else came in early in the game. It’s good we got to see them, but we’d like to see them in a different situation. It’s good to see them.”
Asked about the early work against Yesavage and the missed chance with the bases loaded, Betts pointed to the hinge point. “I thought we did pretty good to kind of get to him,” he said. “We got him out in, what, the fourth? But we just have to cash in in those situations, especially against a team like that who’s swinging it really well. That was a big point in the game that really changed the game.”
Then came the sixth, when everything tilted. What was Mookie’s reaction as the inning went off the rails? “Nothing. Just watch it,” he said. “I’m watching it the same way y’all are. It is what it is. It’s one game. You just keep it moving.”
The offense has cooled since the Cincinnati series, and Betts wasn’t eager to turn it into a story. “You can make it something if you want,” he said. “We’re more than capable of scoring 10 or 11 in a game. It’s just hard to do in the postseason. Obviously they just did it, so they’ve been doing it the whole time. For us, we haven’t. But we’ll figure out a way to win.”
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