Betts Breaks It Open Early, LAD Rolls Past SEA 6-2
Mookie Betts put the Dodgers in the driver's seat before Seattle could blink, doubling to left in the first inning to score two and swing the home win probability from 63% to 79% in a single swing. Los Angeles never looked back, cruising to a 6-2 final.
The game was effectively decided in two bursts. Betts' first-inning double — the single biggest momentum shift of the night — gave LAD an immediate 2-0 cushion. Then, in the fourth, Dalton Rushing went deep to right, a 400-foot shot that scored two and pushed the lead to 5-0. Rushing finished 1-for-4 with a home run, 3 RBI, and a run scored. Teoscar Hernandez added 2-for-3 with a home run and 2 runs scored. Betts went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI, and Andy Pages contributed 2-for-4 with a run. This was a lineup that looked locked in from the jump.
Seattle made things briefly interesting in the sixth. Randy Arozarena — who was the story of the night for the Mariners, going 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run — doubled to left to score Cole Young and cut the deficit to 5-1. A walk to Raleigh then plated Arozarena, making it 5-2 and loading the bases. For a moment, it looked like Seattle had a pulse. Hernandez erased any doubt immediately, launching a 412-foot home run to center to restore the four-run cushion at 6-2. That was the ballgame.
On the mound, Roki Sasaki went 5.1 innings, allowing 2 earned runs on 5 hits with 3 walks and 7 strikeouts — a workmanlike outing that appears to have been more than enough given the run support he received. Bryan Woo had a rough night for Seattle, surrendering 5 earned runs on 5 hits across 5.0 innings, with 8 strikeouts that ultimately meant nothing in the context of the damage done. Alex Hoppe provided 2.0 innings of 1-run relief, and Cole Wilcox tossed a clean inning to close it out. The story of the night for Seattle was Arozarena doing everything he could — 3-for-4 is a quality night by any measure — but getting almost no support from the rest of the lineup when it mattered most. For Los Angeles, this was a complete performance: early offense, a home run that buried the game, and a bullpen that held the line.