Manager Dave Roberts was able to convince Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman to take a game off before Jason Heyward led the Dodgers to another win.
Max Muncy, Chris Taylor and Kiké Hernández drove in runs in the 11th inning to push the Dodgers to a 6-2 NL West-clinching win over the Seattle Mariners.“Mookie just texted me right now,” Roberts said amid the team’s postgame clubhouse celebration Saturday night, “and said he wouldn’t be upset if he didn’t play tomorrow.”
Freeman, who makes playing all 162 regular-season games an annual goal, was a tougher sell — prompting Roberts to initiate some “slow-dripping, preemptive conversations” with his first baseman about a post-clinch off day over the last several weeks. “He set the precedent [last year], as far as once we clinch, he’ll take the day off,” Roberts said, referencing the lone game Freeman sat out last year in the same situation. “So I had to revisit that conversation.”Turns out, the Dodgers didn’t need either superstar — nor other regular starters, including catcher Will Smith, third baseman Max Muncy or shortstop Miguel Rojas — to collect a third consecutive win.
Instead, Heyward continued his banner weekend against the Mariners by going three for five with a first-inning solo home run, fourth-inning RBI single and seventh-inning ground-rule double. His on-base-plus-slugging percentage is now .865, on pace for the best mark of his 14-year career.Advertisement
“He let me borrow it for a second,” Heyward joked, after watching Freeman go stir-crazy in the dugout. “But that probably felt like three weeks for him, watching a baseball game today.”
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