PHOENIX — With a Comic Con-style “Phoenix Fan Fusion” event going on near Chase Field this weekend, downtown Phoenix is filled with people dressed as comic book superheroes.
Mookie Betts just came as himself.
Betts homered to start the game Saturday — his 11th home run this month — and the Dodgers overturned an early deficit with two runs in the fifth inning to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 3-2, Saturday.
Betts (who was 2 for 4 in the game) moved back into sole possession of the National League home run lead two pitches into Saturday’s game. It was his 14th home run of the season (after hitting none in his first 12 games) and ninth in his past 14 starts.
It also gave him at least one extra-base hit in each of his past nine starts and at least one run scored in each of his past 15 starts.
Have a month, why don’t you?
According to the Dodgers, Betts' 11 home runs this month are the most by a Dodger in the month of May since Roy Campanella hit 12 in May 1953. And Betts’ 20 extra-base hits this month are the second-most in Dodgers’ history for May, trailing only Jackie Robinson’s 21 in May 1949.
Campanella and Robinson went on to win the NL Most Valuable Player award in those seasons.
Tony Gonsolin has also been turning in some heroic performances.
The right-hander went six innings again Saturday — the third consecutive start he has completed six innings after never having done it in back-to-back starts before in the big leagues. He had a brief lapse in the second inning, giving up three of the four hits he allowed including a pair of RBI triples.
That was only the third time in his nine starts this season that he has allowed more than one run and his ERA actually went up — from 1.62 to 1.80.
The Dodgers turned around that early 2-1 deficit with a pair of runs in the fifth inning. Gavin Lux led off with a single, moved into scoring position on a ground out by Betts then scored on a Trea Turner single (extending Turner’s hitting streak to 20 games, the longest in MLB this season).
Freddie Freeman walked in front of Turner after just missing a two-run home run when his drive went foul down the right-field line. He went to third on Turner’s single and scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly by Will Smith.
The Dodgers had a chance to build on their one-run lead in the seventh inning but a pair of replay reviews went against them.
Lux led off with a double, tagged and went to third on a fly out by Betts. But replays showed Lux’s pop-up slide took him off the base for a split second and he was ruled out.
Freeman walked after that and was picked off first base, the Diamondbacks winning their second replay challenge of the inning.
No matter — Justin Bruihl, Alex Vesia and Daniel Hudson held the Diamondbacks scoreless over the final three innings, allowing just one hit. That leadoff double by Ketel Marte did put the tying run in scoring position to start the ninth. But Hudson retired the next three batters to close it out.
