Mookie Betts homered twice, went 4-for-4 and drove in four runs while leading the Los Angeles Dodgers past the host Kansas City Royals 9-3 on Friday night.
Leading off the game, Betts hammered a 3-1 fastball 422 feet to left, his ninth leadoff homer of the year and 45th of his career. The blast came on the fifth pitch in the major league career of Royals starter Alec Marsh.
Betts made it his 26th career multi-homer game in the third, giving the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. The 402-foot shot to left was his 22nd of the year.
After Jason Heyward’s one-out RBI double in the fourth, Betts’ sharp single to center scored Heyward for a 4-1 advantage.
Betts had the second of three consecutive doubles to start the eighth inning as Los Angeles took a 9-3 lead. It was his second four-hit game of the year. Betts also walked twice as he reached safely six times, matching a career high.
In the fifth, the Dodgers’ J.D. Martinez hit a sacrifice fly that scored Will Smith, who had tripled to lead off the frame. Originally ruled a foul ball, Smith’s fly near the right-field line was changed on appeal.
Heyward’s third hit scored Martinez in the seventh, giving the Dodgers a 6-3 edge. Heyward recorded his second straight three-hit game for Los Angeles, which has won seven of its past nine games.
Kansas City stolen bases led to single tallies in the third, fourth and sixth innings.
In the third, Drew Waters singled and stole second, moved up on a groundout, then came home on Bobby Witt Jr.’s grounder, cutting the deficit to 2-1.
In both the fourth and sixth innings, Maikel Garcia singled and stole second. He collected three of the Royals’ nine hits.
Garcia scored on Nick Pratto’s fourth-inning double and on Freddy Fermin’s sixth-inning single that drove Dodgers starter Bobby Miller (4-1) from the mound with a 5-3 lead.
Miller surrendered three runs on five hits and a walk in 5 2/3 innings, striking out four.
Four Los Angeles relievers shut out Kansas City over the final 3 1/3 innings.
Marsh (0-1) allowed five runs on six hits and four walks while striking out five in four-plus innings.
–Field Level Media
