Sunday afternoon, current Los Angeles Dodgers star and former Boston Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts wrapped up his first series at Fenway Park as a visiting player (GameTracker). He received a loud ovation prior to his first at-bat Friday. The Red Sox traded Betts to the Dodgers in a Feb. 2020 deal that has greatly favored Los Angeles.
"This was a special chapter in my life," Betts told MLB.com about his Boston days earlier this weekend. "And where I'm at now, it's a little bit easier to look back and look at that young kid and tell him, 'Good job.'"
Betts has continued his August hot streak against his former team -- he went 4 for 10 with two doubles in the first two games of the series -- and Sunday he put an exclamation point on his weekend with a long and loud home run over the Green Monster. To the action footage:
That is Mookie's 35th home run of the season -- it was his 66th at Fenway Park -- tying his career high set last year. The Dodgers still have another 33 games remaining, so Betts has a very good chance at a 40-homer season.
As noted, Betts has been on an outrageous hot streak this month. He entered play Sunday hitting .457/.510/.794 in August and has multiple hits in 15 of his 23 games this month. His season batting line is up to .312/.406/.605 and he leds all position players with 7.1 WAR. This is Mookie's fourth career season with at least 7 WAR (assuming it doesn't go down in September).
The Dodgers have opened up a comfortable 12-game lead in the NL West. The Red Sox, meanwhile, enter play Sunday 3.5 games behind the third and final American League wild-card spot.
