Steve Webb
Betts’s late-inning heroics send sell-out crowd home happy in win over Phillies
LOS ANGELES — It was “Re-opening Day” at Dodger Stadium. Finally, after months and months of staring at cardboard cut-outs and empty chairs, it was nothing but a sea of cheering actual humans on Tuesday night. And the customers got their money’s worth. In a nail-biter, the Dodgers got a pair of big hits from Mookie Betts late in the game and held off the Phillies a couple of times for a 5-3 victory in front of 52,076 screaming fans.
Back and forth in the early going
In the first half of the game there was a lot of punch/counter punch going on. In the bottom of the first, the Dodgers got a pair of singles from Gavin Lux and Justin Turner, neither hit very hard. But, when the Phillies defense could not turn an inning-ending double play on a Will Smith grounder, the first run of the game scored.
But, the Phillies answered right back in their half of the second inning. Former MVP Andrew McCutcheon took Dodgers starter Julio Urias very deep to left and tied the score with one swing of the bat. After a scoreless third, the Dodgers were right back at it in the bottom of the fourth. This time, the home team put some solid contact on Phillies starter Zach Eflin. And it came from the bottom of the order.
McKinstry and Urias double up in the fourth
After Chris Taylor reached on a force out and Albert Pujols had a long flyout that died on the track for out number two, Zach McKinstry came up. He drilled a two-strike pitch from Eflin to the gap, and Taylor was able to score all the way from first, thanks to some gutsy base coaching from Dino Ebel and a poor throw to the plate by the Phillies defense.
Julio Urias was the next hitter, and once again he proved that he has a nose for the RBI. He smacked the first pitch he saw– an 87-mph slider– into right field and it one hopped the wall for a run-scoring ground-rule double. It was 3-1 Dodgers and things were looking very good for the home team.
Two errors in the fifth cost the Dodgers
Unfortunately, all that hard work in the bottom of the fourth was undone in the very next inning by some shoddy defense. After a lead-off single from Alec Bohm, Urias got Luke Williams to hit into a grounder that looked like it could be a double play. Unfortunately, second baseman Chris Taylor found himself in no-man’s land after fielding the ball. Because of the shift on Williams, Taylor was too far from the bag to make the play himself, and shortstop Gavin Lux wasn’t even close to the bag. This caused Taylor to rush his throw to first, and he pulled Pujols off the bag, thus ensuring that this double play ball would get a total of zero outs.
After the pitcher Eflin bunted both Phillies forward ninety feet, Odubel Herrera doinked a ball into the opposite field. Unfortunately, left fielder Matt Beaty let the ball clank off his shin, allowing both baserunners to scamper home to tie the score.
Urias doesn’t get the win, but goes six
Julio Urias was hoping for a tenth victory against the Fightin’ Phils, but was undone by the defense in the fifth. However, he did manage to go 5.2 innings on Tuesday, and gave up only two earned runs. He got into a bit of trouble in the sixth when he gave up a walk and a single, and had to be bailed out by buddy Victor Gonzalez. Gonzalez was able to get Luke Williams to hit a weak liner to Chris Taylor to end the Phillies’ threat. The line for Urias was done for the evening: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 5 K. He left the game with the score deadlocked at three.
The rest of the evening belonged to Mookie Betts. In the bottom of the seventh, Betts stepped in against Ranger Suarez, who came into the game with a ridiculous 0.42 ERA. And, true to form, Suarez got quickly ahead of Betts 0-2 with a couple of fastballs. Then, he tried to sneak a changeup past Mookie, and immediately regretted it as soon as he heard the crack of the bat. Betts mashed the pitch over the left-center field fence and into the waiting glove of a fan in the third row of seats for a go-ahead home run.
Then, in the bottom of the eighth, Betts came up again, this time with two outs, and just for good measure he decided to drive in an insurance run as well. With men on first and third, Mookie ripped a solid single up the middle for his third hit of the night. The knock drove in an all-important fifth Dodger run, setting up Blake Treinen for the save in the top of the ninth.
Treinen works around error for save
Treinen was working in his third straight day, so it was an open question how sharp he would be on Wednesday. But it wasn’t Treinen that we needed to worry about. Once again, the Dodgers defense committed another error, this time on what could have been a game-ending groundout to first. Instead, it skipped off Albert Pujols’s glove, and Chris Taylor and Treinen were unable to make the connection for the putout.
That brought up one of the most dangerous hitters in the Phillies’ lineup, catcher JT Realmuto. And, though the scoreboard operator and the TV broadcaster were mixed up on the count, Treinen struck out Realmuto to end the game. It was a tad bit anti-climatic because literally no-one but Treinen, Will Smith, and Realmuto seemed to realize that the game was over. Finally when we all came to our senses, the Dodgers were headed into victory formation with a third straight series victory in their pockets.
Kershaw vs. Wheeler in the finale
The Dodgers (41-26) are now 4-1 on this brief home stand. They wrap things up with the Phillies on Wednesday night, and then it’s off to the Valley of the Sun to face the Diamondbacks. It should be the best pitching match-up of the series in the finale, as it pits Clayton Kershaw against Zach Wheeler, who has been the Phillies best pitcher so far this year. 7:10 start. It should be another big crowd. What could be better?!
