Boston Red Sox
Mookie Betts broke out of his World Series slump, while Kiké Hernandez made a highlight play to seal the win.
Mookie Betts and Kiké Hernandez ensured that the Dodgers’ season and hopes of repeating as World Series champions wouldn’t end on Friday.
The former Red Sox star and standout each made the biggest plays of the game to help the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays in Game 6, 3-1, to force a Game 7 of the World Series. First, Betts hit a two-run single in the third inning that gave Los Angeles a 3-0 lead.
Six innings later, Toronto was threatening to tie the game by getting runners at second and third with no outs. After Tyler Glasnow forced a pop-up to first for the first out in the bottom of the ninth, the Dodgers pitcher was able to get Andres Gimenez to fly out to Hernandez in left.
That’s when Hernandez made the heads-up play to seal the game. Blue Jays right fielder Addison Barger strayed a bit too far from second base, allowing Hernandez to throw him out as the runner couldn’t get back to second base on time and ending the game.
While Hernandez made the clutch play, he admitted that he was pretty close to making a major error.
“Somehow I was able to hear the bat broke, even with that crowd,” Hernandez told Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal. “And the crazy thing is that I had no idea where the ball was, because it was in the lights the whole time. Given the situation of the game — World Series on the line, and how good I was hitting tonight — I was like, ‘It’s going to hit me in the face, but I’m not stopping, I’m not pulling up.
“Then at the very end, the ball came out of the lights and went in my glove.”
The play also happened because Hernandez was out of position.
“I was playing a little more shallow than the card wanted me to,” Hernandez told Rosenthal. “But given the situation, a really fast guy at second base, I’m going to play really really shallow. If he hits it over my head, kudos to him, but I felt like his pop is more to the pull side.”
As Hernandez’s awareness paid off there, Betts’s timely hitting allowed the Dodgers to even have the cushion they had in the first place. With the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the third inning, Betts took Blue Jays starting pitcher Kevin Gausman’s 96 mph fastball and lined it into left field for a two-run single with the bases loaded.
“Trying to go up and away there to Mookie and left it more middle-up,” Gausman told reporters of his pitch to Betts. “If that’s higher, it’s probably either a strikeout or a pop fly.
The hit was much-needed for Betts. He was 3-for-23 in the World Series prior to Game 6 and was moved down in the lineup for the second straight game as the Dodgers scored just three total runs in their Games 3 and 4 losses.
“It felt great to come through for the boys,” Betts told reporters. “Obviously, I would love to play well for myself. But that’s kind of irrelevant. I want to play well for the boys.”
As Betts delivered, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had a sense that hit like that one would happen at some point for his star shortstop.
“I felt that putting him in the four slows things down, lets the game come to him,” Roberts said. “But I’m not going to run from Mookie Betts. He’s just too good of a player, and so that was not a consideration.”
Bett’s Dodgers teammates also had a feeling that Betts would step up at some point in the World Series.
“He’s a guy that is not going to get outworked by anybody,” Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas told reporters. “He’s really accountable with the things that he says to you guys. He’s really hard on himself and he shouldn’t be, because he’s still a superstar and he’s still a guy who’s going to end up in the Hall of Fame.
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