Mookie Betts Homers Twice in Dodgers Win

Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts homered twice Friday night as the Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants 8-2 at Dodger Stadium, capping a five-run eighth that featured four home runs. Betts led off the first with a solo shot, then went deep again with two outs in the eighth after Josue De Paula reached. Max Muncy and Kyle Tucker had already gone back-to-back to open that inning. Betts and Will Smith then went back-to-back to finish the barrage.

Tyler Glasnow (5-1) threw six innings, allowed two runs and three hits, and struck out a season-high 10. Los Angeles improved to 94-60 and sits two games behind NL Central champion Milwaukee for the best record in the majors. The Giants fell to 64-90, their 90th loss and their most since 2017.

Four in the eighth

Philip Abner inherited a 3-2 game and allowed all five eighth-inning runs. He became the second Giants reliever in club history to serve up four homers in one inning. Muncy's blast traveled 420 feet and Tucker's went 403, both to right-center. The show landed on the 20th anniversary of the Dodgers' famous four-straight homers night in 2006.

Rookie Josue De Paula, finishing his first week in the majors, lined a go-ahead double in the sixth and had earlier singled and scored the tying run on Teoscar Hernández's RBI single in the fifth. Edwin Díaz worked a scoreless ninth with two strikeouts in his return look. Betts is the named lead on a night that started with a leadoff swing and ended with an eighth-inning fireworks reel.

Betts entered the night as the named lead on a Dodgers club already clinched into October and still chasing Milwaukee for home-field advantage. Two homers and a five-run eighth do not invent a clinch math problem that is already solved. They do put a highlight reel on a Friday that Smacktok fans can ride without inventing magic numbers.

For Smacktok fans tracking September boards, Betts' two-homer card is the clip that travels. Glasnow's 10 punchouts are why the lead held until the bats exploded. The Giants' 90th loss is the standings stamp that rides with it.

September stakes

The Dodgers keep chasing Milwaukee for home-field advantage. Betts' Friday night is the highlight. Four in the eighth is the number that sticks.

Leadoff shot. Four in the eighth. Eight-to-two in Chavez Ravine. That is Mookie's Friday.