Mookie Betts homers in return as Dodgers beat the Brewers (2024)

MILWAUKEE—

Mookie Betts — or, as he’s known around these parts, “Spooky” Betts — returned to the Dodgers’ lineup for the opener of a four-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night, refusing to stay with the team at the supposedly haunted Pfister Hotel for the second straight season.

Whether ghosts actually exist in the historic, 131-year-old downtown hotel is open to debate, but Betts wasn’t about to take a chance that they do.

“You don’t want to mess with them,” Betts said. “I’m staying at an [apparition-free] Airbnb again. That part is not gonna change.”

Another thing that hasn’t changed: Betts’ ability to make baseballs disappear.

Playing for the first time in seven weeks, Betts deposited a two-run home run over the left-field wall in the third inning to drive in the first runs of an eventual 5-2 win over the Brewers in American Family Field.

Betts, who prepared for his return by taking live batting practice in Dodger Stadium for three days, also hit a two-out RBI single in the seventh to help push the Dodgers to their fourth straight win.

“It’s probably on one hand, it really is,” manager Dave Roberts said, when asked how many major leaguers could come back after seven weeks, not play any minor league rehab games and have the game Betts had Monday night.

“[Brewers starter] Freddy Peralta is a heck of a pitcher, so to have the night he did against him was huge. And that two-out hit off [Bryan] Hudson to add the insurance run was big. It’s a lot more fun writing his name in the lineup.”

The lineup isn’t quite whole. Third baseman Max Muncy and utility man Tommy Edman, who is expected to play mostly center field, are expected to be activated next week.

But even with the loss of Betts for almost two months, Muncy for three months and injuries that have shelved 10 starting pitchers, the Dodgers (70-49) have the best record in the National League and are tied with Cleveland and Baltimore for the best record in baseball.

“It’s remarkable,” Roberts said. “It’s a credit to those guys in the room, the coaches, and everyone playing their tails off. And I still believe we haven’t played our best baseball in quite some time. The expectation is for us to be even better.”

Shohei Ohtani, who remained in the leadoff spot while Betts moved to the two-hole, followed Kevin Kiermaier’s fifth-inning single with his NL-leading 36th homer, driving a 3-and-0 fastball from Peralta 424 feet to left-center field to give the Dodgers a 4-0 lead. It was the first time in Ohtani’s career that he homered on a 3-0 pitch.

“He has the green light [on 3-0],” Roberts said. “He can fire whenever he wants to.”

Clayton Kershaw delivered his best start in four games since his late-July return from shoulder surgery, giving up one run and three hits in 5 ⅔ innings, striking out six and walking two for his first win of the season.

“It was a good game for us, all the way around,” said Kershaw, who leaned more heavily on his slow curve. “Personally, it was OK. Decent command all the way through. A couple of big spots I was able to get out of.”

Kershaw departed with a runner aboard and two out in the sixth, only to have his replacement, Joe Kelly, give up a two-run homer to William Contreras that cut the Dodgers’ lead to 4-2. Kelly has been tagged for five earned runs and five hits — three of them homers — in 3 ⅔ innings of his last five games.

The Dodgers got one run back in the seventh when Ohtani walked with two out, stole second — his 33rd stolen base of the season — and scored on Betts’ RBI single to right field for a 5-2 lead.

Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia struck out the side in the seventh, and right-hander Michael Kopech struck out two of four in a scoreless eighth, Jake Bauers with a 101-mph fastball and Willy Adames with a 98-mph fastball.

Kopech has given up one hit, struck out 10 and walked one in 6 ⅓ innings of six games since being acquired from the Chicago White Sox.

“He’s picked us up big-time,” Roberts said of Kopech. “In any leverage spot at the back end of the game, the strike-throwing is there, the consistent throw of the fastball, being able to mix in the slider, the cutter whenever he needs it, he’s neutral against left and right ... those are the pieces I look for in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning.”

Daniel Hudson retired the side in order in the ninth for his ninth save Monday night, but would Roberts consider moving Kopech to closer?

“We’ll see,” Roberts said. “We’ve got time.”

Betts had not played since June 16, the day he suffered a left-hand fracture when he was struck by a 98-mph fastball.

He spent the first 2 ½ months at shortstop, a position he was thrust into because of Gavin Lux’s throwing woes in early March, but both Betts and the Dodgers decided last Friday that the team — and the player — would be better off with Betts in right field, the position Betts has won six Gold Glove Awards at.

Betts looked comfortable and confident in the outfield Monday night, quickly gathering Jackson Chourio’s sixth-inning line drive off the wall and firing back to second to hold the Brewers left fielder to a single.

“You know what? It just kind of happened, I didn’t even think about it,” Betts said. “Those are the intricacies of playing right field that I got to learn over 10 years. I didn’t get a chance to learn it [at shortstop] in two months.”

The Dodgers went 44-29, averaged 4.90 runs a game and hit .255 with a .770 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in their first 73 games with Betts. They went 25-20, averaged 4.98 runs a game and hit .248 with a .757 OPS in 46 games without Betts.

“Having Mookie back is awesome,” Kershaw said. “That ball off the wall in the sixth inning, to keep it to a single — stuff that not a lot of people can make look that easy — not to mention the homer and stuff. The lineup is starting to look like it should. It’s really cool.”

Unless you’re Amed Rosario and Jason Heyward. Betts’ return and position switch had a domino effect on the roster and lineup, with Rosario, a utility man, and Heyward, a right fielder, bearing the brunt of the move.

Rosario, who was batting .305 in 81 games, was designated for assignment to clear a roster spot for Betts just two weeks after he was acquired from Tampa Bay, the Dodgers choosing to keep the right-handed bats of utility man Kiké Hernández and shortstop Nick Ahmed over Rosario.

“You’re cutting ties with a really good ballplayer who is versatile, but it shows the talent we have in the room now and that’s potentially coming,” Roberts said. “I really like Amed a lot. It’s a tough decision. But with our lineup construction, I just didn’t see a lot of runway for him.”

The left-handed-hitting Heyward has started 48 games in right field, batting .204 with five homers and 24 RBIs, but with Gold Glove-caliber defender Kiermaier and Andy Pages platooning in center field and Teoscar Hernández entrenched in left field, Heyward will be reduced to a pinch-hitter with an occasional spot start.

“It’s awesome to get Mookie back in our lineup — he’s a tough guy to miss, so it will be fun to have him back,” said Heyward, a 15-year veteran. “The name of the game is helping the team win, and I’ll be ready for that.”