Mookie’s slam grander than most
Not all grand slams are created equal.
The one created by Mookie Betts last night came with an extra helping of sheer joy, splendor and impact.
By now, you’ve seen replays of Betts’ home run trot, arguably the most ecstatic trip around the bases since the Blue Jays’ Joe Carter skipped and hopped his way around with his World Series-clinching home run in 1993.
A whipsaw swing that launched an ultimately futile J.A. Happ pitch — the 13th of the at-bat — over the Wall and toward the Pike had barely ended its recoil before Betts knew it was gone.
With a hop and a belthigh, double-fist pump, Betts closed his eyes and roared before beginning his arced path to first base that included a backward skip and a cool, full-armed finger-snapping motion.
He was on his way, the fans were on their feet, his teammates were going wild — everybody was headed over the moon in Betts’ wake.
“Since I’ve been in the big leagues that’s probably the most excited I’ve been,” said Betts.
He nearly tripped himself halfway to first, but Betts understands balance and motion as well as your favorite ballet dancer, so he recovered to continue on his merry way.
“Almost went down — had to depend on my athletic ability and it came through that time,” he said.
Betts has never been shy about expressing emotion on the field. He has a lot to be happy about, probably more than anybody else in the American League at this moment and plenty in his amazing and still-young career.
He understands how baseball needs more celebrations like he put on. It takes feats of baseball genius timed just right to generate the best of these excuses to laugh and whoop. And last night was that time.
“Obviously everyone was excited, it was a big moment in the game, kind of swung everything around — it was definitely fun,” said Betts.
He did not remember yelling anything specific to anyone, just an all-around display of happy.
“Just looking at the dugout, excited — a good time to show some emotion,” he said.
Roaring once more back toward his teammates, Betts rounded first, the miniature red bat charm necklace and the gold one bouncing off his chest as he ran.
Details of the trip around the bases will not come from Betts.
“I just remember kind of going around and just being ecstatic,” he said.
The fourth inning of Game 95 in the middle of July may not measure up to hitting a home run that clinches baseball’s ultimate prize, but let’s not let that diminish or detract from a single moment of Betts’ blast.
And there were so many moments — seemingly insignificant at the time, yet crucial to the swing — that added up to the grandest of grand slams.
The set-up to the moment was that the Sox were down, 2-0, and they had yet to crack Happ. He had held them to only one hit in the first three innings and struck out the first batter he faced in the fourth. Xander Bogaerts singled and then Brock Holt hit a sharp ground ball to shortstop. The flip from Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to second baseman Devon Travis was perfect and Bogaerts was charging hard, but Travis’ footwork was just a bit too swift for his own good.
After Bogaerts was called out, manager Alex Cora asked the umpires to go to the video and sure enough they ruled the neighborhood play tripped up Travis. Bogaerts was safe.
A single, an out and a mad and senseless walk of Jackie Bradley Jr. later, Happ faced Betts with the bases loaded and two outs.
Ah, the at-bat. There was the called first strike, then the ball, then the swinging second strike and then — then, things got interesting.
Six balls in a row Betts fouled off, most to the right side of the diamond, one just within reach of first baseman Justin Smoak, who could not make the play.
Betts watched pitch No. 10, a slider, hit the dirt and skitter away from catcher Russell Martin.
Then another foul and a ball before pitch No. 13 came, a 95.2-mph fastball below the strike zone but over the middle of the plate.
Betts swung and connected, his knees bending low as his upper body leaned back before he began his explosive and lightning-quick stroke.
“It was a long at-bat obviously — (Happ) was tough today, we had a lot of guys swinging through pitches, we all battled,” said Betts.
Fair enough, but let’s never forget the smile that stretched across the face of Betts, a player who brings everything that baseball needs to its game.
Let’s toast this grand slam.