Mookie Betts Continues To Crush Orioles In Baltimore
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's unfortunate that Boston's current road trip only has them in Baltimore for one more game.
The Orioles have been one of the best home teams in all of baseball, but that hasn't meant much to the Red Sox. Mainly because of Mookie Betts, who has had no issues hitting in Camden Yards this season. The Boston right fielder hasn't had many issues hitting anywhere this season, but his numbers are even more eye-popping at the home of the Orioles.
Betts continued to destroy the baseball Tuesday night in Baltimore, leading Boston to a 5-3 win to pull them into a tie with the O's for second in the AL East and only one game behind the Blue Jays for the division lead. Betts led the way with a pair of key homers, breaking up a scoreless tie with a three-run bomb in the fifth and a two-run blast to break up a 3-3 tie in the eighth.
Betts is batting .390 for the month of August and has eight hits in his last four games. Five of those have found a home in the stands, with Betts driving in 14 runs in that stretch.
It hasn't mattered where he's hit in the order, either -- from leadoff to the 3-hole to cleanup. Betts is on a power surge that has propelled him to the front of the AL MVP race, and breathed new postseason life into the Red Sox. His two-homer night gives him 28 for the season, placing him ahead of David Ortiz atop Boston's leaderboard.
Betts hit just nine homes in June and July, but already has seven in August. The slugger was asked where his recent power surge is coming from following Tuesday's win.
"Shoot, I have no idea," Betts told reporters. "Somehow it's going over the fence. Again, I'm going to continue to say I don't know why, but I'm just trying to put good swings on it and enjoy it."
Reliever Robby Ross Jr. called Betts' current run "freakish." David Ortiz, who has had a few runs like this of his own over his 20-year career, had another word.
"It's fun," said Ortiz. "The kid has worked so hard to get better. Just watching him doing that is unbelievable."
Fun may be an understatement. Forget the Olympics: It's appointment TV whenever Betts steps to the plate. He's entrenched in the top 10 of nearly every major offensive category, and it's his lumber that is making the Boston lineup go in such a pivotal stretch of the season.
And then there are his stats at Camden. This is where's Ross' "freakish" description fits best: In five games in Baltimore, Betts is 10-for-21 (.476) with seven of those hits leaving the yard. He's had three multi-homer games as a visitor, more than anyone in a Baltimore uniform this season.
"Just comfortable, I guess," he modestly said of his success in Baltimore. "I like it here, just Baltimore and the park and what not. Maybe that's the reason why."
The Red Sox wrap up their brief series in Baltimore on Wednesday, but the good news for Betts is they'll be back for four more games during another key stretch at the end of September.
If the playoffs started today, Boston would pay Baltimore a visit in the one-game, AL Wild Card contest (the O's own the tiebreaker at the moment, leading the season series 5-6). Home field advantage means a lot, and it's not often one player can negate that advantage. Then again, there aren't many players like Mookie Betts out there.
Just ask the Orioles.