Five seasons after being traded from the Red Sox to the Dodgers, Mookie Betts continues to look like the biggest winner of the blockbuster deal.
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Betts’ eighth-inning sacrifice fly off Yankees closer Luke Weaver gave the Dodgers the lead for good Wednesday night as they erased an early 5-0 deficit to win the World Series in five games with a 7-6 victory at Yankee Stadium. Betts was 1-for-3 with two RBIs and has now won three World Series rings: one with the Red Sox in 2018 and two more in Los Angeles (2020, 2024).
After the Yankees went up 5-0 behind early homers from Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Giancarlo Stanton, shoddy defense allowed Los Angeles back into the game in the fifth. Two errors and a mental mistake by Gerrit Cole, who didn’t cover first on a grounder, let the Dodgers tie the game with five fast runs. Betts drove in the first run for Los Angeles with a single that plated Kiké Hernández.
In the top of the eighth, after Los Angeles tied the game, 6-6, Betts came to the plate with one out and the bases loaded. He swung at a high Weaver fastball and drove it to center at 97.9 mph.
“At that point, it was just, ‘Don’t strike out,’” Betts said on the FOX postgame show. “Put one in play right there. You never know what’s going to happen.”
Betts, teammate Joe Kelly and veteran reliever Will Smith are the only active players with three World Series rings. Considering the 32-year-old has eight years left on the 12-year, $365 million deal he signed with the Dodgers in 2020, it’s not hard to imagine him racking up a couple more.
“Obviously, resilient, but there’s so much love in this clubhouse,” Betts said. “There’s care that won this game today. That’s what it was. It was love, it was grit. It was just a beautiful thing. I’m just proud of us and I’m just happy for us.”
More from the Associated Press:
NEW YORK (AP) — Just when it appeared Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees were right back in this World Series, they all but handed away the trophy.
An epic meltdown of defensive miscues, beginning with Judge’s embarrassing error in center field, helped the Los Angeles Dodgers rally in a five-run fifth inning that tied the score at 5.
Young shortstop Anthony Volpe and ace pitcher Gerrit Cole also committed costly mistakes. New York’s bullpen squandered a one-run lead in the eighth, and the Dodgers held on for a 7-6 victory Wednesday night in Game 5 that wrapped up their eighth championship and second in five years.
Finally back in their first World Series since 2009, the Yankees didn’t last long.
It was the latest autumn failure for baseball’s most successful franchise — one that used to own October.
Not anymore. Not lately, at least. And in the Yankees’ universe, 15 years is a long time between titles.
On deck, an offseason of uncertainty as New York tries to retain free agent slugger Juan Soto, who is expected to have several eager suitors and command a massive contract.
After losing the first three games to LA, the Yankees won 11-4 in Game 4 behind Volpe to prevent a sweep. That left them looking to become the first of 25 teams that fell behind 3-0 in the World Series to force a Game 6, which would have been back at Dodger Stadium.
And they got off to a rollicking start, too, with back-to-back homers by Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the first inning. Giancarlo Stanton went deep leading off the third, and the Bronx Bombers had a 5-0 cushion.
Cole cruised through four hitless innings, pitching around a leadoff walk in the fourth with the help of a remarkable catch by Judge as he crashed hard into the left-center fence.
California, here we come, right?
Wrong.
