LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts made his fourth consecutive start in the infield Friday night, a move that Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said had more to do with second baseman Miguel Vargas’ month-long slump than Betts’ penchant for turbocharging his bat when he plays “in the dirt.”
But it’s getting impossible to ignore the correlation between Betts’ infield starts and his elevated production, especially after the leadoff man hit a pair of solo home runs and a two-run double to lead the Dodgers to an 11-4 victory over the Angels in front of a sellout crowd of 52,214 at Dodger Stadium.
Tony Gonsolin gave up four runs and seven hits in 62/3 innings and struck out five to improve to 5-3 with a 3.86 ERA, and he teamed with Julio Urías (six innings, two runs, three hits Thursday) to give the Dodgers consecutive starts of six innings or more for the first time since June 13-14, when Gonsolin and Clayton Kershaw did it.
Freddie Freeman hit a solo homer in the first inning, J.D. Martinez hit a solo shot in the second and an RBI double in the third, and Will Smith capped a four-run eighth inning with a two-run homer, as the Dodgers (50-38) won for the fourth time in five games.
The Angels (45-45) lost for the eighth time in nine games and dropped them to .500 for the first time since June 3, when they were 30-30.
Betts hit his first homer off Angels starter Griffin Canning in the third inning and his second off reliever Tyler Anderson in the fifth, giving him a team-leading 25 homers this season and 27 career multihomer games.
The Angels, shut out for 23 straight innings against the Dodgers this season, finally broke through with a three-run fourth off Gonsolin, who breezed through the first three innings in which he needed only 25 pitches to retire all nine batters.
Shohei Ohtani led off the fourth with a single to right, Taylor Ward reached on an infield single and Mickey Moniak, the former No. 1 overall pick whom the Angels acquired for pitcher Noah Syndergaard last summer, lined a three-run homer with an exit velocity of 110.5 mph to right field to cut the Dodgers’ lead to 4-3.
But Betts lined a homer off the top of the short left-field wall and deflected into the bullpen to push the lead to 5-3 in the fifth, and he followed a two-out single by James Outman and a walk to Miguel Rojas with a two-run double to left to make it 7-3 in the sixth.
Betts will start Tuesday night’s All-Star Game in the outfield, but he now has a .331 average (39 for 118) and 1.072 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in 31 games at second base and shortstop and a .243 average (51 for 210) and .864 OPS in 53 games in right field.
Vargas, meanwhile, is mired in a nose dive that has not only cost him playing time but could warrant a demotion to triple-A Oklahoma City, where he could work to regain the stroke and confidence that made him the organization’s best pure hitting prospect entering this season.
“I think everything should be on the table, I really do,” Roberts said before the game. “There’s a piece of winning here, and there’s also a piece of putting his mind where it needs to be, because clearly right now, he’s pressing. He’s never struggled like this.
“So if it does come to that ... it’s always healthy to have that conversation with young players who are struggling. It would be for the benefit of him, shorter and long-term, but right now, he’s here and he’s gonna play (Saturday night).”
Vargas used his gap-to-gap power to hit .313 with an .878 OPS, 49 homers and 265 RBIs in 410 minor league games, and the Dodgers were so confident his bat would play in the big leagues they moved him to second base, a position where he made only 27 minor-league starts, over the winter.
But Vargas, 23, has shown only glimpses of the hitter he was in the minors. He’s batting .197 with a .670 OPS, seven homers, 15 doubles, four triples and 32 RBIs in 79 games, and has looked overmatched for most of the past month, batting .082 (five for 61) in 21 games since June 9.
“Wins are always important, and there comes a point where we’ve got to run out our best options out there to win a baseball game,” Roberts said. “So I think that having that optionality to have Mookie in the dirt, to pick matchups for Miguel Vargas, is smart.”
If the Dodgers do demote Vargas, they could recall Michael Busch, who is batting .320 at Oklahoma City. And, of course, Betts would play more games in the infield.
“I do believe the defense is getting better, and the experience of being at the major league level is helpful,” Roberts said of Vargas. “But it’s also helpful to feel yourself getting some hits and getting your confidence going. I do think (he adds to the team), but at what point do you decide that it could be detrimental? I don’t know the answer right now, but having a conversation is in his best interest and is healthy.”
