Mookie Betts’ eighth-inning single gives Dodgers series win over the Rockies
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Mookie Betts’ first hit of this series against the Colorado Rockies couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. With the crack of the bat, Tommy Edman scored from third, giving the Dodgers the lead.
As Betts reached first, he pointed to Freddie Freeman, whose single put Edman in scoring position. It had taken a team effort to overcome another middling start from Roki Sasaki, and Betts, who had little to show for his effort before his eighth-inning hit, took the chance to highlight the joint contribution in the Dodgers’ 4-3 rubber-match win.
“It feels great,” Betts said of winning his nine-pitch battle with Colorado’s Antonio Senzatela. “Helping the boys win, that’s really all it is. We play the game to win, and coming through in a big moment is kind of what, when you’re a kid, playing in the backyard, getting that hit is what you always strive to do, and fortunately, I was able to do it.”
Given a three-run lead in the first inning, thanks to a wild pitch by Colorado’s Gabriel Hughes that scored a run and Kyle Tucker’s two-run single to left, Sasaki seemed set up for success.
Still, he gave away the lead as quickly as it came. In the second inning, he left a fastball too far over the plate, and Colorado’s Kyle Karros drove the ball over the wall in left-center. The slider Sasaki dealt two batters later to Edouard Julien also crossed too far over the plate, and Julien rounded the bases with another homer. In the third, a sacrifice fly by Mickey Moniak evened the score, 3-3.
In this issue of Dodgers Dugout, we take a look at Dalton Rushing, Dave Roberts and a few other things.
The source of Sasaki’s troubles this season has been hard to pin down since his last win on May 23, as the young right-hander tries to claw back the triple-digit velocity that has escaped him as of late. Against the Rockies, his fastball topped out at 99.1 mph before steadily dropping to 98. He settled down, however, and had five strikeouts in six innings when manager Dave Roberts replaced him with left-hander Jack Dreyer.
Roberts has acknowledged the possibility that Sasaki had been tipping his pitches, possibly since he was playing in Japan, and Sasaki addressed it after a three-inning, six-run start against San Diego last week. Even if he had corrected any such problems, he acknowledged there’s still work to do. In the third inning he walked Brett Sullivan, who came around to score the tying run.
“I’ve been working on a lot of things like the tipping stuff,” Sasaki said through interpreter Kensuke Okubo. “Also, I need to make quality pitches.”
Sasaki regained some confidence in the fourth when he worked out of a jam with runners on second and third and nobody out. He responded by getting two strikeouts and a fly ball to right, then retired the side in order in the fifth and the sixth.
“You can see the demeanor walking off the mound, the confidence,” Roberts said. “For me, it was more of let him end on a high note, feeling good about his outing, and then go from there.”
The Dodgers’ problems were compounded by Alex Call wasting their two challenges in his at-bat in the first inning when they already had taken the lead. Maybe it would’ve been excusable if Call had driven in the runners on first and second, but instead he ended the inning on a strikeout, stranding both. Roberts later dismissed the situation an “outlier.”
After their three-run first, the Dodgers went hitless until Max Muncy laced a double down the right-field line in the sixth, though to no avail. As the game moved forward, Colorado’s chances seemed to increase. The Rockies hold the best league batting average (.297) in the eighth and ninth innings (the Dodgers are fourth at .268). And the Dodgers relievers, within the same time frame, have a 3.83 earned-run average — not bad, but not in the top 10 either.
So when Alex Vesia struggled in the eighth inning and Muncy committed a throwing error, Colorado seemed in position to score with the bases loaded and one out. But Vesia struck out TJ Rumfield and Edgardo Henriquez (4-0), his replacement, retired Karros on a fly ball.
After Betts’ hit gave the Dodgers (61-33) the lead, Tanner Scott shut down the Rockies with back-to-back strikeouts for his 13th save, the Dodgers narrowly avoiding their eighth series loss of the season.
“Didn’t feel great,” Roberts said. “Fortunately, we won a series, but that’s not the kind of way you want to do it.”
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