Betts thrills a packed house with winning HR
LOS ANGELES >> It was Throwback Tuesday.
Playing in front of an opened-to-full-capacity Dodger Stadium for the first time since the 2019 postseason, Mookie Betts drove in the go-ahead runs as the Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 on ‘Re-Opening Day’ Tuesday night.
The announced crowd of 52,078 was full capacity indeed. The Dodgers announced it as the largest crowd to attend a professional sports league event in the United States since the pandemic began in March 2020.
Along with it came all the familiar features of a packed house — the shocked eruption over a broken bat, the fullthroated investment in between-innings features on the scoreboard, the roar of 50,000 people misjudging a routine fly ball together ... and, of course, late arrivers stuck in parking-lot traffic and long lines at overburdened concessions stands.
All of that provided the backdrop for Betts’ first big moment in a packed Dodger Stadium ... as a Dodger.
Betts’ solo home run leading off the seventh inning broke a 3-3 tie and was his third homer in the past six games. After one of the others (part of a two-hit, three-run game) on Sunday, Betts was unwilling to forecast the arrival of a hot stretch to turn around a season up to his standards. But he had three hits Tuesday and is 7 for 21 (.333) during this sixgame stretch.
It should have been an easier night for the Dodgers.
Starter Julio Urias gave up a solo home run to Andrew
The Dodgers’ Mookie Betts rounds first base after hitting a solo home run against the Phillies in the seventh inning.
McCutchen in the second inning but took a 3-1 lead into the fifth — thanks, in part, to his own doing.
Zach McKinstry and Urias had back-to-back RBI doubles in the fourth inning to give the Dodgers that lead. It was one of two hits Tuesday for McKinstry who went 2 for his first 23 after returning from an oblique injury but is now 5 for his past 10.
Urias followed with a ground-rule double just inside the foul pole in the right field corner. It was Urias’ eight RBI of the season, at least one in each of his past five starts.
In the fifth, however, errors by Chris Taylor (at second base) and Matt Beaty (in left field) helped the Phillies score twice to tie the game.
It stayed tied until Betts
sent a jolt through the sellout crowd, ripping an 0-and-2 changeup from Phillies lefty Ranger Suarez into a left-field pavilion cleared of cardboard cutouts.
With limited bullpen options based on recent usage, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts asked Phil Bickford to protect the one-run lead in the eighth and fans were reminded of the white-knuckle finishes they have been missing.
Bickford walked the first two batters in the eighth then battled back to strike out McCutchen and Alec Bohm before getting Luke Williams to bounce out and end the inning.
Betts bought closerfor-the-day Blake Treinen some breathing room with a two-out RBI single in the eighth and Treinen finished it off in the ninth.