The trouble with facing a team like the Los Angeles Dodgers is that they have weapons up and down their lineup. You can delay having to face one or two of their stars, but chances are someone else is going to make you pay for it. Tuesday night, that person was Mookie Betts.
The Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels went to extra innings Tuesday night. With first base open (and Kevin Kiermaier on second base) the Angels opted to walk Shohei Ohtani intentionally. That brought Betts up. He swung at the first pitch—a slider over the middle of the plate—for a home run, putting the Dodgers up in the crosstown rivalry game, 6-2.
Betts was interviewed on-field after the game. He had a great reaction to the Dodgers opting to face him instead of Ohtani, giving a casual reaction to being chosen to pitch to:
"You know, they walked Sho to get to me, and I was just like, alright." Mookie Betts with @kirsten_watson on his 3-run homer in the 10th. pic.twitter.com/7FbEB94h5W
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) September 4, 2024
"That [display of emotion] doesn't happen often, so I kind of [blacked] out. I just knew they walked Sho' to get to me, and I was like alright. That's kind of what you want," Betts said. "I know Freddie [Freeman is] behind me, so they're not gonna mess around," Betts also explained as far as why he felt he could be aggressive at the plate.
In fairness, the Angels had no good options here. Choosing between pitching to Ohtani or Betts in this scenario is a "pick your poison" kind of scenario. And as Betts said, Freeman gives him protection as well.
That would be all she wrote for the game, as the Angels would go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 10th inning. Betts didn't put the Dodgers ahead (offense earlier in the inning pushed the free runner at second in for a 3-2 lead) but did make the lead virtually insurmountable.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Dodgers’ Mookie Betts Had Great Quote on Making Angels Pay for Walking Shohei Ohtani.
