Why Mookie Betts currently holds the edge over Freddie Freeman for NL MVP
What many thought would be a spirited National League West race between the blue-blood Dodgers, free-spending San Diego Padres and upstart Arizona Diamondbacks is essentially over, the Dodgers holding an 11½-game lead entering Monday.
But there is an intriguing competition brewing in the Dodgers’ dugout, with super utility man Mookie Betts and first baseman Freddie Freeman trying to one-up each other for the right to challenge Atlanta Braves stars Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson for the NL most valuable player award.
Freeman, who is batting .330 with a .986 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 23 homers, 45 doubles, 83 RBIs and 102 runs and has started all of the team’s 123 games, had a slight edge coming out of the All-Star break over Betts, who is batting .298 with a .989 OPS, 34 homers, 32 doubles, 86 RBIs and 101 runs in 117 games.
Austin Barnes drives in the tying run on a squeeze bunt and Mookie Betts punches the Dodgers ahead during an eighth-inning rally in a 3-1 win.
But Betts may have nudged ahead with an extended tear in which he is batting .379 (61 for 161) with a 1.238 OPS, 15 homers, 17 doubles, 39 RBIs, 44 runs, 29 walks and 24 strikeouts in his last 41 games. The Dodgers are 32-12 since June 28, including a 17-2 mark in August.
Betts hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the eighth inning to lift the Dodgers to a 3-1 comeback victory over the Miami Marlins in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday, and he hit solo homers in the third and fifth innings to lead the Dodgers to an identical 3-1 win in the nightcap.
“I am following it,” manager Dave Roberts said of the Betts-Freeman MVP pursuit. “[Saturday] was Mookie’s night, and Freddie has been trying to find his way the last few games and not feeling really comfortable, but he’s still performing. It’s going to be fun down to the wire.”
Betts’ performance on Saturday was fit for a King — LeBron James was in Chavez Ravine for the second game, the Lakers star taking in his Dodgers bobblehead night from a club-level suite, and Betts acknowledged the NBA’s all-time scoring leader with not one but two royal salutes.
As he crossed the plate after each homer, the dynamic leadoff man pointed to and then saluted James above the first base dugout. James responded by doffing his cap and bowing to the Dodgers star after his second homer.
“It’s super cool,” Betts said on the SportsNet LA postgame show. “I go to Lakers games sometimes, and I wave to him. We haven’t really gotten to talk a whole lot, but game recognizes game, and I had to try to show out for him.”
Betts downplayed his interactions with James when talking to reporters afterward, saying he did not draw any extra inspiration from him, but Roberts wasn’t buying it.
“I think it’s just respect,” Roberts said. “It’s like, ‘I know you’re here in the house, and this is still my house, and I’m going to put on a show for you.’ Hitting a baseball is as hard as anything to do, but I just think Mookie had another gear to show out tonight, and we were all the beneficiaries.”
With his 28th career multi-homer game, Betts, the 2018 American League MVP with the Boston Red Sox, moved to within one of the career-high 35 homers he hit in 2022.
“I’m surprised, but I’m also not,” the 5-foot-9, 175-pound Betts said of his power surge. “I’ve worked really hard to be where I am now, and I’m going to continue to work hard.
“I’ve just got to take it in stride. Whatever comes, comes. Don’t get too high or low. I don’t really pay attention to numbers. If we go out and win, that’s all I really care about.”
The wins have been coming in bunches for the Dodgers, who will take a 76-47 record into this week’s trip to Cleveland and Boston.
They moved to within 4½ games of the Braves for the league’s best record entering Sunday.
And although their rotation took a hit with an elbow injury that will sideline Tony Gonsolin for the rest of the season, it has also received a shot in the arm with veteran left-hander Julio Urías regaining his 2022 Cy Young Award-contending form.
Urías continued to establish himself as the kind of horse the Dodgers need to front their playoff rotation by giving up one run and five hits, striking out five and walking none in seven innings of Saturday night’s game to 11-6 with a 4.15 ERA on the season.
Urías, who struggled in the first half with injury (hamstring) and inconsistency, is 4-0 with a 2.03 ERA in his last five starts in which he’s given up seven earned runs and 24 hits in 31 innings, striking out 32 and walking four.
“This is what we need,” Roberts said. “We’ve talked about it. He knows that first and foremost, and he’s delivered. So now it’s a sprint, and he’s got an opportunity to right his season and put us on his back on the days [he pitches], and that’s what he’s done.”
Urías gave up a 431-foot solo homer in the first inning to Josh Bell and nothing else, thanks to his ability to escape two jams.
Miami put two on with no outs in the third, but Urías struck out power-hitting leadoff man Jorge Soler with a 90-mph cut-fastball, got .360-hitting Luis Arraez to fly out to left field and Bell to pop out to first base. With runners on second and third and two outs in the seventh, Urías got Nick Fortes to fly out to left with his 100th and final pitch.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Tony Gonsolin has been pitching through pain for six weeks before he was placed on the injured list Saturday.
“He was awesome,” Roberts said. “You could just feel the energy tonight. The City Connect jerseys, LeBron in the house, the crowd was really energetic, and he just fed off of it. So tonight, it was the Mookie and Julio show.”
Urías, speaking through an interpreter, said his “body feels good, and my mind feels good,” and he has regained the attacking mentality that made him so effective in 2022, when he went 17-7 with an NL-leading 2.16 ERA in 31 starts. But he doesn’t necessarily feel pressured to be an October ace.
“This team is going for big things,” Urías said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re the second guy or fifth guy [in the rotation], the fight to win is the same. It’s just going out there and doing your job, giving 100% and the team having your back. Good things happen when you’re consistent.”
That fifth rotation spot will be filled, at least temporarily, by right-hander Ryan Pepiot, who was called up as the 27th player on Saturday and threw five strong innings, giving up one run and three hits, striking out five and walking one, in the first game.
Pepiot, who won a rotation spot in spring training before suffering a rib-cage strain that sidelined him for the first three months of the season, showed good command of his 94-mph fastball and his 87-mph changeups and sliders.
“He filled up the strike zone, got ahead in counts … it was exactly what we needed,” Roberts said. “Certainly, the way he threw the baseball speaks to him getting another opportunity.”
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