LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mookie Betts is no longer ailing, finally able to keep food down and eating up a storm to pack on the weight he dropped while battling a stomach virus during the first two weeks of the season.
And, as the eight-time All-Star reminded everyone, “I’m still good at baseball.”
He surely is.
The Los Angeles Dodgers star hit two home runs, including a three-run blast in the 10th inning that gave the defending World Series champions over the Detroit Tigers on Friday night.
“That was not on my bingo card,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He just does some special things.”
The Dodgers are off to a 4-0 start for the first time since 1981, a year they won the World Series.
Betts had his third career walk-off homer. In the eighth, his first homer of the season put the Dodgers in front for the first time.
“Right now I’m just having fun hitting 160-pound homers,” he said, smiling.
Betts went 3 for 5 with three runs and four RBIs on a night when .
“We were joking around that that first home run he hit was probably his best hope that he’s got right now with all the strength that he’s got,” third baseman Max Muncy said, “but he one-upped it so we were all wrong on that one.”
to Japan for their season-opening two-game series with the Chicago Cubs. But he returned early, flying back before ever suiting up because of the virus that caused him to lose about 15 pounds.
“I’m at 165 now, so another seven or eight pounds will help me a lot but 10 would be ideal,” he said.
How does he plan to gain?
“Keep eating. Just eating all day,” he said. “My chef and wife, both of them are doing enough cooking. I’m eating during the game.”
Betts couldn’t keep any food down when he was feeling his worst and initially not knowing what was wrong added to his stress.
So when his game-winning shot off Beau Brieske sailed into the left-field pavilion, Betts pounded his fist as he rounded the bases, his head full of thoughts and his teammates waiting for him at the plate.
“Just the fight that I’ve kind of been through, the ups and downs, the nights where I’m just crying because I’m sick,” he said. “My wife there and just kind of holding me. That’s really where that emotion kind of comes from.”
Betts raised his right arm in the air, tossed his helmet toward the dugout and hopped a few times as he approached the plate. His teammates celebrated by dousing him in water.
“I can’t say enough about Mookie,” Roberts said. “He won a ballgame for us.”
Betts came to the plate in the 10th after back-to-back singles by Will Smith and Shohei Ohtani, who took second on defensive indifference.
“The pressure was kind of off,” Betts said. “We were going to get another at-bat with Freddie (Freeman) there and we all know what Freddie does in those type of situations. It was just kind of relax, if you do, cool, if you don’t that’s OK.”
And Betts did.
“I know it sounds super-selfish,” he said, “but I was really proud of myself.”
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