Mookie Betts flexed his arms and began to shout. Max Muncy simply looked to the sky and strolled slowly out of the batter’s box.
In the eighth inning Wednesday night, both hitters erased some recent frustrations in the Dodgers’ 9-3 win over the Athletics, delivering the key hits in a five-run rally that turned a close game into a laugher.
With one out, and Kiké Hernández standing at second base after being bunted over by Miguel Rojas following his leadoff single, the Athletics decided to intentionally walk Shohei Ohtani. They wanted right-handed Tyler Ferguson to face Betts instead.
After showing some improvements with his slumping swing on last week’s road trip, Betts entered the at-bat back in another cold spell, stuck in a 0-for-7 rut to start this homestand that included a fly out that left two runners stranded in his previous at-bat in the sixth.
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This time, however, Betts crushed a double in the right-center gap. A 4-3 lead suddenly blossomed to a 6-3 cushion. And as Betts pulled into second, he turned toward the first-base stands (the same direction as the A’s dugout) and screamed with an animated celebration.
Three batters later, Muncy put the game away, clobbering a three-run homer that was a no-doubter off the bat. It was just Muncy’s second home run of the season, and snapped his own 0-for-8 skid to begin this homestand. As the ball sailed around the right-field foul pole, Muncy gave it a long look, admiring the kind of swing that has eluded him for much of the opening two months of the season.
In the bullpen, closer Tanner Scott took a seat. In a game that had been close for eight innings, his services wouldn’t be needed.
The Dodgers had broken a 3-3 tie in the sixth inning, when Miguel Rojas drove Michael Conforto home from first with a pinch-hit double.
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Moments before that, Andy Pages had run into an out on the bases, getting overaggressive on a Conforto single by trying to go first-to-third. Thus, when Rojas hit his line drive the other way, it briefly seemed like the blunder would come back to cost the Dodgers a chance to go in front.
Instead, A’s center fielder JJ Bleday had trouble getting a grasp.
As Bleday booted his cut-off attempt, the ball bouncing off his glove as he slid along the outfield grass, Dino Ebel immediately put his arm in helicopter mode, the third base coach giving Conforto — chugging hard all the way from first — a green light to race to the plate.
Hyeseong Kim, right, celebrates with Shohei Ohtani after hitting his first career home run in the Dodgers’ win Wednesday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Conforto beat the delayed relay. The Dodgers had their first lead since the third inning. And with their full stable of high-leverage relievers available (the ones currently not on the injured list, anyway), they never looked back again.
The Dodgers (28-15) did all of their early scoring the same way Wednesday, hitting three leadoff home runs in three innings against Athletics rookie starter Gunnar Hoglund.
Ohtani got things started in the first, belting his 13th homer of the season (and third to lead off a game) on a scorching line drive that carried over the right field wall.
The next inning, Pages walloped one the other direction, lifting his seventh blast of the season to the left-field bullpen.
In the fifth, Hyeseong Kim got his first MLB big fly, lofting a wallscraper to right for career home run No. 1.
The Athletics (22-21) got to Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto with their own long ball, Tyler Soderstrom hammering a two-run blast with two outs in the third when Yamamoto tried to steal a first-pitch strike with a curveball over the plate.
Outside that, however, Yamamoto was effective in a six-inning, three-run outing that left his ERA at 2.12 on the season. The only other score he allowed came in the fourth, when a leadoff walk to Shea Langeliers set up Miguel Andujar for an RBI double.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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