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Mookie Betts homers in 10th as Dodgers down…

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Los Angeles Dodgers |
Mookie Betts homers in 10th as Dodgers down Angels on a night with strong outings by starting pitchers

The Angels intentionally walk Shohei Ohtani in his return to Anaheim and Betts makes them pay with a three-run blast in a 6-2 Dodgers win. Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler and Angels lefty Reid Detmers makes strides as they try to find their form.

Associate mug of Jeff Fletcher, Angels reporter, sports. Date shot: 09/26/2012 . Photo by KATE LUCAS / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
By | [email protected] | Orange County Register
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Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani looks on in the dugout before their game against the Angels on Tuesday night at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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ANAHEIM — Walker Buehler considered the predicament that the Dodgers’ lineup provided for Angels manager Ron Washington.

“It’s a tough situation to walk a guy that got 700 (million dollars) to get to the guy that got 350,” the Dodgers right-hander said. “He’s pretty good at baseball too.”

Washington intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani – the $700 million man making his return to the ballpark he called home for six years – and then Mookie Betts hit a three-run homer, which put away the Dodgers’ 6-2, 10-inning victory over the Angels, delighting the blue-clad portion of the sellout crowd of 44,731 on Tuesday night at Angel Stadium.

Miguel Rojas drove in the free runner with a single to put the Dodgers ahead, 3-2. After Ohtani was intentionally walked, Betts hit a three-run homer against Roansy Contreras. It was Betts’ fifth home run in 21 games since returning from a broken hand.

“I wasn’t going to let Ohtani swing there, and I have all the respect in the world for Mookie Betts,” Washington said. “Just was hoping that Contreras could make a pitch and get a ground ball and get us a double play to keep the game at one. First pitch, he left in the middle of the plate and up. Mookie didn’t miss. That’s what he gets paid for.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts certainly enjoyed being in the other dugout, while his counterpart had a no-win decision to make: “It’s the old adage, pick your poison. That’s the great thing about having great players. From my chair, there’s always a good option. Mookie came up big tonight.”

The Angels couldn’t even get their free runner home in the 10th.

Their best late-inning performances were from relievers.

Ben Joyce ended the ninth with a 105.5 mph fastball to strike out Tommy Edman. It was the hardest pitch in the majors this season. José Quijada struck out Freddie Freeman at the end of a 12-pitch at-bat to end the eighth, stranding the go-ahead run at second.

The Dodgers (84-55) won for the 18th time in their last 24 games as they try to close out another NL West title, while the Angels (57-81) are now just one loss away from their ninth consecutive losing season.

Considering the position of the two teams in the standings, the outcome of the game was arguably less important than the work of the two starters.

Buehler is trying to prove that he can be a playoff contributor for a Dodgers team trying to patch its rotation together around a handful of injuries.

Angels left-hander Reid Detmers is trying to regain his spot on the organizational pitching depth chart after spending three months banished to the minor leagues.

The Angels sent Detmers down with a 6.14 ERA, and he didn’t have any sustained success at Triple-A until his last three starts.

“I’m glad to be back,” Detmers said. “It’s been a long three months. It was all worth it. The first innings my legs were a little shaky. I wasn’t nervous. It’s just a lot of adrenaline. I’m just happy to be back be a part of this club and just help us win some games.”

In his return to the major leagues, he allowed only two runs in six innings, striking out 10. He allowed only three hits, and they came in a span of five pitches to the MVP-laden top of the Dodgers’ order in the third inning, driving in both runs.

After that, he retired the last 11 hitters he faced, striking out seven of them. His slider, which he said he changed while in the minors, got whiffs on 42% of the Dodgers’ swings.

“Outstanding,” Washington said of Detmers. “The best command I’ve seen him have with his fastball. And you know, he was able to use his offspeed pitches in some very good situations. That got them off-balance, especially his changeup.”

Detmers is just the fourth starter to strike out 10 Dodgers this season. He did so at a time when the Dodgers were coming off scoring 32 runs in their previous four games.

Buehler certainly had an easier task in dealing with an Angels’ lineup that has been in a slump for a month. Still, Buehler came into the game with an ERA of 5.88, even though he’d shown incremental signs of improvement in each of his four starts since returning from a hip injury.

Buehler got through five innings – for the first time since June 12 – and the only runs he allowed were homers by Logan O’Hoppe in the second inning and Taylor Ward in the fifth.

Buehler struck out six, finishing four of them with a curveball that has been a significant improvement for him in the last two starts.

“From the last start, I thought it was even better in the sense of his composure,” Roberts said. “I think right now Walker’s in compete mode. I think that it’s important that, when you’re in September and you’ve got a few starts left until we get to the postseason and him trying to find some traction and get to being the pitcher that he was, it’s important to kind of, at some point, you’ve got to put mechanics aside and you’ve got to go out there and compete and make pitches. His last start, tonight, I thought he did that.”

Buehler gave up four runs (two earned) in 4⅔ innings last week against the Baltimore Orioles, so even though this one was better, he saw them as two encouraging steps.

“I think these past two starts, obviously the line doesn’t reflect it last time, but starting to get some punchouts and all of that kind of stuff,” he said. “I think for me it’s all these little tiny boxes checked. I feel like myself and I feel like I can go and throw the ball well. Tonight wasn’t my best game ever, but for right now I’m pretty happy about it and confident and in four, five, six days, whatever we end up doing, I feel ready to take the ball and I feel like I can help us win.”

As for the Ohtani show, the ballpark rocked every time he stepped to the plate, although at least half of the fans were wearing blue.

There was a public debate about how the Angels should acknowledge Ohtani in his first regular-season visit to Angel Stadium since his six years wearing red. The Angels played a tribute video during the exhibition Freeway Series in March. This time, the main video board flashed “Welcome back Shohei Ohtani,” above a picture of him in an Angels uniform and a list of his most significant accomplishments.

Any smattering of Angels fans who chose to boo him were drowned out by the grateful Angels fans and the Dodgers fans.

The fans – many of whom were wearing blue – cheered him loudly as he came to bat for the first time. When Ohtani tripled in the third, driving in the Dodgers’ first run of the game, fans cheered and chanted “M-V-P! M-V-P!”

“The biggest part of all this is really being able to play in this stadium and in front of these fans,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “That’s the part that was special for me.”

Before the game, Washington said he enjoyed competing against Ohtani, and hoped his players would be able to contain him.

“A special ball player,” Washington said. “So every time you get a chance to be on the same field with him, you try to keep your jaw up, because he can do some things out there that make it fall. I just hope we can keep our jaw up instead of watching him and have it fall.”

After the game, Washington said the entire atmosphere was something that he hopes his players can use as motivation.

“I know it was awesome for my team to be playing in this type of atmosphere,” Washington said, “because this is playoff atmosphere, so they get a chance to see what it feels like, because one day they’ll be there.”

Staff writer Bill Plunkett contributed to this story.

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