Mookie Betts and the Los Angeles Dodgers picked up where they left off Wednesday night, pulling away for a 6-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians in the first game of a doubleheader at Progressive Field.
The Dodgers held a 3-1 lead when play was suspended following a lengthy rain delay, which cut Clayton Kershaw’s start at just two innings. It marked his shortest outing of the season.
L.A. took their initial lead on Will Smith’s sacrifice fly and a two-run double from Kiké Hernández with two outs in the first inning. The lone run Kershaw allowed came on José Ramírez’s solo homer in the second inning.
As play picked back up Thursday afternoon, Betts helped spark the offense once again. He followed Miguel Rojas’ two-out walk in the fourth inning with a base hit that put runners at the corners for Freddie Freeman, whose own flare also dropped to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 4-1.
Betts, who had already extended his hitting streak to 11 games and is now batting over .300 for the first time this season, went 5-for-5. His two-run double with the bases loaded in the eighth inning broke the game open.
Betts tied a career high with five hits, which he previously achieved on August 26, 2016, as a member of the Boston Red Sox.
Before Betts’ double, the four-hit game was his fourth this year and second since the All-Star break.
Dodgers pitching for doubleheader
Victor González was on the mound for resumption of the suspended game but he failed to make it out of the third inning. Gus Varland stranded both inherited runners and pitched 1.1 scoreless innings.
Ryan Brasier pitched two innings without allowing a run as well, though he needed to work through some traffic in the sixth. Alex Vesia worked a clean seventh, Brusdar Graterol pitched the eighth inning and Bryan Hudson finished out the win.
For the second game of the doubleheader, Caleb Ferguson is expected to pitch as an opener before giving way to Ryan Pepiot. The Dodgers deployed the same strategy this past weekend against the Miami Marlins, when Pepiot again was up as the 27th man because of a doubleheader.
Cleveland rain delays
Already frustrated with how Wednesday’s game was handled, the Dodgers became further agitated when the first game of their doubleheader went into a rain delay at the start of the ninth inning despite inclement weather not arriving for nearly 30 minutes after play was paused.
It lasted 1 hour and 12 minutes, with the domino effect to include the Dodgers facing a later arrival in Boston, where unfortunately more rainy weather is in the forecast.
From the first pitch to the final out, the game took 20 hours and 32 minutes to officially complete.
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