Star power: Betts, Freeman's B2B HRs beat Padres

LOS ANGELES -- Over the past few seasons, the Padres have acquired some of the top offensive players in baseball. They signed Manny Machado to a long-term extension, Xander Bogaerts joined on a lucrative free-agent deal and they traded a haul to land superstar Juan Soto last July.

All of those moves have been in an effort to close the gap between the Padres and Dodgers, the latter of whom have won nine of the last 10 National League West crowns. But what the Padres have found out is that the Dodgers have some serious star power of their own.

They showed that off once again as superstars Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman led the way for the Dodgers, smacking back-to-back homers in the seventh inning of a 4-2 win over the Padres on Friday at Dodger Stadium.

“That’s why they’re superstars,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “Every time they get up to bat, they can change the game. That was a big lift.”

Freeman opened the scoring for the Dodgers, hitting a key two-run double in the third against left-hander Blake Snell, who allowed just those two runs over six innings. After walks to Trayce Thompson and Betts to start the inning, Freeman waited patiently for a pitch over the plate and jumped on a 1-0 four-seamer, splitting the gap in right-center field.

For a while, it looked like Freeman’s double was going to be the only offense the Dodgers would need. Dustin May was sharp once again and pitched six scoreless innings. But a two-out rally in the seventh inning, which was capped by a game-tying two-out, two-run double by Ha-Seong Kim, ended May’s night on a bit of a sour note.

“It was a quality start. It was a good outing,” May said. “I mean, I would have liked to finish on a better note. But [stuff] happens and I didn’t.”

As the Dodgers have done constantly over the last three weeks, though, they punched right back. After Thompson grounded out to start the inning, Betts hammered a 3-1 Tim Hill sinker, sending it a Statcast-projected 426 feet to retake the lead. Two pitches later, Freeman jumped on a four-seam fastball and sent it into the Padres’ bullpen. It was the first time that Betts and Freeman have hit back-to-back homers.

“Mookie hitting a home run kind of just reenergizes everything,” Freeman said. “As an offense, you got to take it upon ourselves to go out there and obviously, Mookie did against them in San Diego off Josh [Hader] and was able to get it off Tim there. So Mookie is the one with the massive hits. So hopefully, he continues that.”

Both Freeman and Betts are in the midst of their best offensive stretches of the young season. It’s no coincidence the Dodgers have won 11 of their last 13 games riding Betts and Freeman’s hot bats.

Much like last season when he hit 12 homers, Betts has been dominant in May. With his solo shot on Friday, Betts now has four homers and 11 RBIs in 10 games this month. Freeman has also found the power stroke as of late, hitting four of his seven homers this season over the last 15 games.

“With certain guys like that, with a track record that is lengthy, even a start like that, [positive regression], it’ll balance itself out,” Roberts said. “They’re not where they’re going to be. So I think that’s a good thing for us.”

After losing the first meeting between the two division rivals, the Dodgers have responded in a big way, winning the last three against the Padres. A lot of the attention has been on what San Diego has done, and deservingly so, but the Dodgers offered a reminder on Friday that they have some former MVPs of their own.

“We’ve been playing good baseball the last couple weeks,” Freeman said. “We play our game, what we’ve been doing, it doesn’t really matter who we’re playing.”