Betts had two hits in two innings Wednesday night before rain forced the game to be suspended, then three more Thursday in a 6-1 victory in Cleveland
CLEVELAND — Fans in Boston saw Mookie Betts at his best. This weekend, they’re going to see he hasn’t changed all that much. With his first visit to Fenway Park since his 2020 trade to the Dodgers on tap this weekend, Betts continued his MVP-level performance of late with a five-hit game, spread over two days as the Dodgers completed a 6-1 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday afternoon.
Wednesday’s game was stopped after the second inning when the grounds crew rolled the tarp out despite the fact no rain was falling at the time. Thirty minutes later, the rain finally arrived. The most eager grounds crew in MLB did it again Thursday. After the eighth inning, the grounds crew bolted onto the field again, covering it with the tarp. No rain fell for 12 minutes and then only a light drizzle for another 15 minutes before the storm arrived with heavy rain, thunder and lightning. After a 72-minute delay, play resumed and the game ended 12 minutes later – just about 21 hours after the first pitch Wednesday. Betts is on a 22-for-38 tear over his past 10 games with eight multi-hit games in that stretch. His season average is over .300 for the first time this year as a result. Before the game, Betts talked about returning to Boston this weekend and whether it would be more enjoyable to return while he was playing so well – reminding the Red Sox of what they traded away. “Nah. They’ve seen enough. These couple games won’t mean anything,” said Betts who won the American League MVP award in 2018, leading the Red Sox to a World Series win over the Dodgers. “But I want to continue to play well just for me, to show myself, to be consistent – like I’ve always been saying for the last three or four years. I just want to continue to do that. But if I play well, cool. If not, that’s cool too. As long as we win. That’s the No. 1 thing. But I’m definitely excited to see how this all plays out.” His first two hits in this game came Wednesday night before rain prompted the game to be suspended after two innings and resumed Thursday. He led off the game with a single as four of the first six Dodgers batters had hits, producing a three-run headstart that carried the Dodgers through Thursday. After Freddie Freeman singled , Will Smith drove Betts in with a sacrifice fly. Max Muncy doubled to left and Kiké Hernandez drove in two with a double. Clayton Kershaw gave up a solo home run to Jose Ramirez in the second and final inning Wednesday night and the Dodgers slept on a 3-1 lead. They made it 4-1 in the fourth inning Thursday with Freeman’s two-out RBI single. Betts broke it open with a bases-loaded double in the eighth inning, driving in two runs with his fifth hit of the game. It was the second five-hit game of Betts’ career, matching his career-high Aug. 26, 2016, for the Red Sox against the Royals. Kershaw was a spectator when play resumed Thursday and watched as six Dodgers relievers combined to hold the Guardians to three hits over seven scoreless innings. Ryan Brasier took down the most outs and worked his way out of a first-and-third situation with no outs in the sixth inning. He struck out Andres Gimenez and Gabriel Arias then got Brayan Rocchio to fly out, stranding both runners.
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