SAN DIEGO — They were two of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ coldest hitters over the season’s first two weeks.
But on a brisk, breezy Friday night at Petco Park, Mookie Betts and Max Muncy were the biggest sparks in the team’s 6-1 win over the San Diego Padres.
With the Dodgers trailing by one in the fifth inning, Betts and Muncy hit home runs three at-bats apart — Betts sending a solo blast into the second deck in left field to lead off the inning, his first home run of the year; and Muncy giving the Dodgers the lead on a high-arching, solo shot that just cleared the wall in right field with two outs.
They helped the Dodgers pull away down the stretch too — Muncy driving home two runs with a bases-loaded single in the seventh, giving him a season-high three RBIs, and Betts hitting another solo home run in the ninth, giving him his 20th career multi-homer game.
And after they entered night with the lowest batting averages on the team, the evening finished with Betts going two for three with two RBIs and two walks, Muncy going two for three with three RBIs and two walks, and the Dodgers (10-3) joining the New York Mets as the only teams in the majors to reach double-digit wins.
Betts’ and Muncy’s struggles over the opening couple weeks hadn’t been identical.
Muncy was still getting over the physical and mental hurdles of the torn elbow ligament he suffered on the last day of last season. He had been getting on base, with a team-best nine walks over the first 12 games.
He’d been making decent contact too, with an expected slugging percentage that ranked well above league average, according to Baseball Savant.
Still, Muncy’s actual numbers were suffering. Entering Friday, he was just five for 39 (.128) with two doubles, one home run and four RBIs.
“I’ve been happy with the swings I’ve been getting off, they feel good,” Muncy said last week. “Just gonna keep moving forward with it.”
Playing third base Friday, Muncy walked his first two times to the plate before being rewarded in the fifth inning. In a 1-and-1 count, Padres starter Nick Martinez threw him a center-cut fastball. Muncy hit it high and just far enough, the ball clearing a leaping attempt at the wall from right fielder Wil Myers.
Earlier in the inning, Betts also had a breakthrough.
After struggling to square the ball up during an eight-for-45 start to the season — Betts had just two doubles, no home runs and a hard-hit percentage that ranked among the lowest in the majors, per Baseball Savant — the former most valuable player took advantage of a mistake in his third at-bat.
Martinez threw a 2-and-1 cutter over the inner half. Betts smashed it with the barrel, launching a 420-foot drive that erased the Padres’ early 1-0 edge.
Betts and Muncy weren’t done.
On a night when starting pitcher Julio Urias pitched five innings of one-run ball, showing improved velocity with the fastball while racking up six strikeouts and giving up just two hits and three walks, Muncy helped put the game out of reach in the seventh.
After a walk from Betts, a single from Freddie Freeman (who also reached base three times) and a single from Trea Turner, Muncy rolled a two-run single through the middle of the infield.
Justin Turner added a sacrifice fly in the inning, making it the 10th time the Dodgers have scored at least three runs in an inning this season.
Betts then tacked on another run, hammering his second solo shot to left field in the ninth inning.
—Blake Treinen on IL
The Dodgers put reliever Blake Treinen on the injured list with shoulder discomfort Friday afternoon and recalled left-hander Garrett Cleavinger from the minors.
Treinen became the second pitcher to go on the IL with that issue this week, joining starter Andrew Heaney.
Asked before the game if their ailments could be partially a result of the lockout-shortened spring training, manager Dave Roberts said, “Yeah, I think so.”
“We did what we could as far as preparing and not over-taxing them going into the season,” he continued.
“But I think with any pitcher, the uncertainty of when we’re going to start, if we’re going to start, and then now we have a week to get ready for spring training, I think that certainly had some impact.”
