LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts declared his season over. Then it got going. The Los Angeles Dodgers star is mired in the worst season of his career, but released himself from the trappings of expectation. That’s what it took for him to find a swing as free as the one he had on Sunday afternoon, when he unleashed on a fastball from an All-Star closer and sent it into the left field bleachers, punctuating a massive weekend at Chavez Ravine for the Dodgers.
One swing does not cleanse a season that has raised Betts’ self-doubt. Rather, it was a reminder of how dangerous a functional Betts can be for a Dodgers team that needs him as much as ever. They needed him on Sunday, when they squandered an early four-run lead and stared down the barrel of one of the deepest bullpens in the sport. Betts took a center-cut fastball from Robert Suárez and barreled it, watching it fly and enjoying every last bit of it. With clarity has come relief.
“Finally, I did something good for the boys that’s with the bat,” Betts said.
With one swing, Betts issued another reminder of what he’s capable of. The Dodgers, by sweeping the San Diego Padres with a 5-4 win on Sunday, did the same, reclaiming sole possession of first place in the NL West through a renewed, focused level of play and a bullpen currently held together by duct tape.
They won despite watching a 4-0 first-inning lead disappear, and despite needing five different pitchers to record the game’s final 12 outs. Alex Vesia, who had allowed runs in each of his last four appearances, lobbied his way to record the last five of those outs while retiring the top of the Padres’ order to close it out.
MOOOOOOOOOK! pic.twitter.com/xpaTB4JKDN
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 17, 2025
This is the version of the Dodgers they have been looking to capture over six weeks of self-described middling play, the version capable of elevating its focus when needed. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts loathed the idea of calling it a switch his club was capable of turning on — “It’s a dangerous way to live,” Roberts said Sunday morning — but if there is one, it was flipped on for this weekend.
Sunday, it meant jumping all over a poor first inning from Yu Darvish, as Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages each launched home runs. Tyler Glasnow turned in the latest strong performance from a Dodgers starter, giving them a two-run lead to hold when he exited after five innings. Roberts deployed his bullpen aggressively, from firing on Anthony Banda and Ben Casparius in the sixth to asking the struggling Blake Treinen to take down the heart of San Diego’s lineup in the seventh. He brought in Vesia with one out in the eighth inning to try to hold a one-run lead in relief of Alexis Díaz, despite Justin Wrobleski being the only available reliever behind him. When a soft ground ball brought the tying run home, Vesia argued his case to his manager: if the Dodgers were to retake the lead, he would be good to keep going into the ninth.
Roberts agreed with little hesitation.
“It’s one of those moments where you’ve got to just trust your player, and I trusted him,” Roberts said.
Vesia went up the tunnel toward the clubhouse and watched on a monitor as Betts watched a pair of Suárez fastballs miss off the plate to lead off the eighth inning. The next one missed right down the middle. Betts crushed it, and Vesia’s day kept going. He recorded the last three outs for a bullpen that, despite coughing up a lead on Sunday, allowed just three runs in 10 innings over the weekend against a team that entered as one of the hottest in the sport.
“It’s the dawg, right?” Vesia said, alluding to the nickname the bullpen adopted during last October’s World Series run. “We still have that. That doesn’t just go away. Every single one of us, we’re leaning on each other. And we know as a group how good we are.”
This weekend is a reminder of what that bullpen is capable of, especially as they get closer to health with Michael Kopech, Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott all either on or nearing rehab assignments.
It was also a reminder of what Betts is capable of. Eight days have passed since Betts declared his season over; for as many strides as he made defensively in his unprecedented move to shortstop at age 32, his offensive struggles had consumed him — until he stopped carrying those struggles with him. In those eight days, Betts has gone 11-for-36 (.306) while looking much like his old self in the process.
“Every at-bat is the same at this point,” Betts said. “Just trying to do something productive. It definitely helps to not carry burdens from previous at-bats.”
That even extended to his at-bat against Suárez. He ramped up his aggression because the count and the pitch dictated it. He swung without hesitation, with a short and compact swing still capable of producing the power that elevated Betts to superstar status.
“To get into a good count and turn that fastball around, that’s the Mookie we like,” Roberts said.
“Mookie Betts is gonna be Mookie Betts, and no one here is worried about him,” Freeman said.
Nor is there much reason for panic surrounding these Dodgers, who have rebounded from an ugly season sweep to the fourth-place Angels to put together three of their most resounding wins of the season. Given the opponent and the increasing stakes of a tight division race with 38 games remaining, it comes at a good time.
“Gotta keep it going, keep our foot on the gas,” Freeman said.
“I don’t think anyone in that clubhouse doubted our abilities and how good we can be,” Roberts said. “Honestly, it was just good to play a really good series (from) start to finish. I think we respect those guys, I think they respect us, and now we’ve got to turn the page and move on.”
(Photo of Alex Vesia and Mookie Betts celebrating Sunday’s win: Jonathan Hui /Imagn Images)
