Star power: Betts, Freeman’s B2B HRs beat Padres
LOS ANGELES — Over the previous few seasons, the Padres have acquired a few of the prime offensive gamers in baseball. They signed Manny Machado to a long-term extension, Xander Bogaerts joined on a profitable free-agent deal they usually traded a haul to land celebrity Juan Soto final July.
All of these strikes have been in an effort to shut the hole between the Padres and Dodgers, the latter of whom have gained 9 of the final 10 National League West crowns. But what the Padres have discovered is that the Dodgers have some critical star energy of their very own.
They confirmed that off as soon as once more as superstars Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman led the way in which for the Dodgers, smacking back-to-back homers within the seventh inning of a 4-2 win over the Padres on Friday at Dodger Stadium.
“That’s why they’re superstars,” mentioned Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts. “Every time they get up to bat, they can change the game. That was a big lift.”
Freeman opened the scoring for the Dodgers, hitting a key two-run double within the third towards left-hander Blake Snell, who allowed simply these two runs over six innings. After walks to Trayce Thompson and Betts to start out the inning, Freeman waited patiently for a pitch over the plate and jumped on a 1-0 four-seamer, splitting the hole in right-center discipline.
For some time, it appeared like Freeman’s double was going to be the one offense the Dodgers would want. Dustin May was sharp as soon as once more and pitched six scoreless innings. But a two-out rally within the seventh inning, which was capped by a game-tying two-out, two-run double by Ha-Seong Kim, ended May’s evening on a little bit of a bitter notice.
“It was a quality start. It was a good outing,” May mentioned. “I mean, I would have liked to finish on a better note. But [stuff] happens and I didn’t.”
As the Dodgers have executed continually during the last three weeks, although, they punched proper again. After Thompson grounded out to start out the inning, Betts hammered a 3-1 Tim Hill sinker, sending it a Statcast-projected 426 toes to retake the lead. Two pitches later, Freeman jumped on a four-seam fastball and despatched it into the Padres’ bullpen. It was the primary time that Betts and Freeman have hit back-to-back homers.
“Mookie hitting a home run kind of just reenergizes everything,” Freeman mentioned. “As an offense, you got to take it upon ourselves to go out there and obviously, Mookie did against them in San Diego off Josh [Hader] and was able to get it off Tim there. So Mookie is the one with the massive hits. So hopefully, he continues that.”
Both Freeman and Betts are within the midst of their finest offensive stretches of the younger season. It’s no coincidence the Dodgers have gained 11 of their final 13 video games using Betts and Freeman’s sizzling bats.
Much like final season when he hit 12 homers, Betts has been dominant in May. With his solo shot on Friday, Betts now has 4 homers and 11 RBIs in 10 video games this month. Freeman has additionally discovered the facility stroke as of late, hitting 4 of his seven homers this season during the last 15 video games.
“With certain guys like that, with a track record that is lengthy, even a start like that, [positive regression], it’ll balance itself out,” Roberts mentioned. “They’re not where they’re going to be. So I think that’s a good thing for us.”
After shedding the primary assembly between the 2 division rivals, the Dodgers have responded in an enormous manner, successful the final three towards the Padres. Quite a lot of the eye has been on what San Diego has executed, and deservingly so, however the Dodgers supplied a reminder on Friday that they’ve some former MVPs of their very own.
“We’ve been playing good baseball the last couple weeks,” Freeman mentioned. “We play our game, what we’ve been doing, it doesn’t really matter who we’re playing.”
