Mookie Betts Says Dodgers Weren’t Stressed in Game 4: ‘We Were Having Fun’
The Dodgers’ bats had seemed to run dry when they scored only two runs in Game 2 and trailed one run behind the Padres for six innings in Game 3. With their season on the line in Game 4, the Dodgers finally found the spark they have been looking for since Game 1 of the NLDS — and had fun doing it.
“I think it was a lot more light than people would think,” Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts said. “We weren’t uptight. We were having fun, laughing, joking. We knew what we were about to do. We knew the challenge we had to face. But we all just enjoyed it … We knew we’d be OK.”
A handful of the Dodgers’ strongest batters had struggled at the plate this postseason. But that all changed on Wednesday.
Catcher Will Smith hit a two-run homer in the top of the third inning to give the Dodgers a five-run lead and mark his first hit of the postseason.
Then, second baseman Gavin Lux logged his first postseason home run since 2019 in the top of the seventh to add two more runs to the scoreboard.
One Dodgers player did a full 180. Betts, who was a candidate for the NL MVP before his injury in June, has consistently struggled in postseason play. In the last three postseasons, he went 3-for-44. But Wednesday was a different story.
Recording his second consecutive first-inning home run of the series, Betts hit a solo homer and RBI single in his first two at-bats in Game 4.
After two disappointing losses to the Padres, the Dodgers refused to end their season without a fight.
“We have a bunch of grinders and a bunch of fighters,” Betts said. “We knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Nothing’s easy. And so you just gotta take whatever cards you’re dealt and play them. And that’s what we’ve been doing.”
The Dodgers have to keep pressing on the gas to win the series on Friday in a win-or-go-home Game 5.
Photo Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images
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