Mookie goes where only one other leadoff batter has

LOS ANGELES -- Very few leadoff hitters have put together a season like the one Mookie Betts is having. Really, very few leadoff hitters have put together a career like Betts’.

The All-Star hit a leadoff home run in the Dodgers’ 11-8 loss to the Padres on Monday night at Dodger Stadium, his 12th leadoff homer of 2023 and the 48th of his career. He is now one shy of tying the record for most leadoff homers in a season (set by Alfonso Soriano in 2003), and he’s tied with Ian Kinsler for fifth all time.

• Games remaining: vs. SD (2), at SEA (3), vs. DET (3), vs. SF (4), at COL (4), at SF (3)
• Standings update: The Dodgers (87-56) lead the D-backs (76-69) by 12 games in the National League West, but they trail the Braves (94-50) by 6 1/2 games for the No. 1 seed in the National League
• Magic number to clinch NL West: 7

After falling behind quickly to Padres starter Pedro Avila in the Dodgers’ first at-bat of the game, Betts connected with an 0-2 upper-half changeup, which he drove a Statcast-projected 396 feet to left field for his 39th homer of the season. One more would give Betts the first 40-homer season of his career.

The long ball also gave Betts his 100th RBI of the season, making him just the third player in AL/NL history with at least 100 RBIs out of the leadoff spot.

• Most career leadoff home runs in MLB history

“Our offense starts with Mookie,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He gets on base, he can slug and you don't see too many leadoff hitters driving 100 runs in a season. What he's doing with the slug really is unprecedented.”

Betts picked up three more RBIs in the third inning, when he came up with the bases loaded and lined a long double to left-center field -- which a fan reached over the wall to catch. The umpires determined that the ball wouldn’t have left the yard, but that it was deep enough for all three runners to have scored.

That brought Betts’ RBI total on the season to 103, which ties the AL/NL record for most from the leadoff spot in a season, set by Charlie Blackmon in 2017. With 19 games remaining, Betts seems all but certain to break -- and move well past -- that mark. (Darin Erstad is the third leadoff hitter with 100 RBIs, with exactly that number for the 2000 Angels.)

Now in his fourth year with the Dodgers, Betts is putting up his best numbers in L.A. yet -- and numbers akin to his 2018 American League MVP campaign. It’s looking increasingly like this year’s NL MVP race is squarely between him and the Braves’ Ronald Acuña Jr., a neck-and-neck contest likely to go down to the wire.

For a moment this past week, Betts’ quest to put the finishing touches on his bid seemed like it might be derailed. He fouled a ball off his left foot on Thursday in Miami, leading to him leaving the stadium on crutches and missing the first two games of the Dodgers’ weekend series in D.C. But Betts felt well enough to return to the lineup on Sunday, when he went 0-for-4 with a walk. His 2-for-4, four-RBI effort on Monday was a nice reassurance that he hadn’t lost his rhythm.

“When he feels right and feels healthy, there's just not many guys that can do what he does,” said Roberts. “[He] took a couple days off and [we got] him back, and he just picked right back up where he left off.”

Although their magic number to clinch the NL West remain unchanged with the D-backs beating the Mets on Monday, the Dodgers are likely a matter of days away from claiming their 11th division title in the past 12 seasons. Betts is a major reason why they’re in that position -- and their hopes for postseason success very much hinge on how he’s able to set the tone in the leadoff spot. And despite the loss, Monday was a reminder of his ability to do that like no one else in the game.

“It's not just Mookie, but certainly, he's a guy that jump-starts us,” said Roberts. “And when he's swinging the bat, impacting the game like he is, it certainly creates opportunities for everybody else. I know Freddie [Freeman] feeds off of that and everyone on down feeds off what Mookie does.”