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    • Mookie Betts breaks out as Dodgers move to the brink of the World Series
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    Mookie Betts breaks out as Dodgers move to the brink of the World Series

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    NEW YORK – He’s the other man in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ high-powered lineup.

    He’s the man whose face isn’t on every billboard in Los Angeles.

    The man who can actually dine quietly in a restaurant in Beverly Hills without TMZ and all the other camera crews following him.

    The man who is a star in this game but has never been compared to Babe Ruth or named one of the greatest players in baseball history.

    The name is Mookie Betts, and Thursday night in the Dodgers’ 10-2 loss to the New York Mets — which gave LA a 3-1 lead in the NLCS — he reminded everyone loud and clear of his otherworldly talent.

    “He’s one of the best players in the game,” Dodgers infielder Max Muncy said. ‘Sometimes you just have to remind him. And sometimes, in games like this, he reminds you.”

    Betts put on a show for the sold-out crowd of 43,882 at Citi Field, going 4-for-6 with a home run and four RBI, becoming only the third player in Dodgers history to produce at least four hits and drive in four runs in a game after the season.

    “I can’t really describe it, but I felt pretty good,” Betts said. “It’s good to feel good. It’s good to help the team. It was fun.”

    Betts and Shohei Ohtani, who started the game with a home run, combined for seven runs, tying for the most runs with a team’s first two batters in the lineup in postseason history (last achieved by Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez with the 2004 New York Yankees). ).

    “Mookie is ridiculous,” said Dodgers shortstop Tommy Edman, who cleaned up. “He’s one of the best players in baseball and has been for a while. He works so hard and he hits behind Shohei. I don’t envy the opposing pitcher who is 1-2 against those guys.”

    The Dodgers lineup has outscored the Mets this series, outscoring them 30-9 and showing so much patience that they’ve already drawn 31 walks — the most in a four-game stretch in postseason history. Muncy reached a postseason record of 12 consecutive runs in this series, including three more walks on Thursday. Ohtani walked three times after his leadoff home run. Teoscar Hernandez walked twice and now has six walks in the series.

    “That’s what makes this team such a good team,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It’s not just Ohtani, it’s Mookie and Teoscar and it’s Freddie (Freeman). And you’ve got Muncy there too, and Kiké (Hernandez) doing things that Kiké does this time of year.

    “I think it’s a deep lineup, but the most important thing is that they’re going to force you into the zone. They’re not going to chase. When you get in the zone, you have to execute. Because if not, they will make you pay.”

    Betts did just that, again and again and again Thursday. He hit a one-out single in the third inning, resulting in a two-run rally and a 3-1 lead. He hit a two-run double in the fourth inning, giving the Dodgers a 5-2 lead. And he hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning, breaking the game open by giving the Dodgers a 7-2 lead.

    Betts, an eight-time All-Star, six-time Gold Glove winner, MVP winner, batting champion and two-time World Series champion, has played in 67 previous postseason games in his career. He has never played a match like this before.

    Those playoff ghosts are suddenly gone.

    The hatred and vitriol on social media are gone.

    Betts, who deleted his social media accounts last week while mired in a 3-for-44 postseason slump that absolutely drove him crazy, has come out the other side triumphant.

    “You know, it’s hard to really get away from everything,” Betts said, “because everyone’s watching. There is family, friends, you, everyone watching. There’s no real way to escape it.

    “So really, just getting off social media and spending time with my kids, my wife, my family, that’s really the easiest way to escape it. Sometimes I just go into the locker room and sit down by myself to get away from all the stuff that’s going on, and you can reset and get back to it.

    “It’s hard, but if you want to do it, you will find a way.”

    That postseason slump, the one that haunted him the past two winters when the Dodgers were forced to leave early, is finally over.

    Betts is now hitting .333 in the Dodgers’ last seven postseason games, with two doubles, three home runs, 10 RBI and eight runs, leading the Dodgers to the brink of the World Series.

    “I mean, a lot has happened,” Betts said. “Worked today. But (Friday) is a new day, and I come to work and try to find the same feeling.

    “It’s just a lot of work. God really answers prayers. ”

    The biggest difference now, the Dodgers say, is the confidence he exudes at the plate, in the field and in the clubhouse. He took 500 hits a day in the batting cage and tried to get it right, beating himself up in the process. If he were to have a hard time, he said, it wouldn’t be because of a lack of work.

    “Mookie is still one of the best players in baseball,” Muncy said. “I know he’s overshadowed a little bit because we have Shohei Ohtani, but Mookie still gets paid $400 million as well. Come on, look what he did. We just have to remind him sometimes.”

    Betts said: “My teammates have done a great job of giving me confidence. Sometimes I need that.”

    The Dodgers, of course, will tell you how much they need him. They won’t get the ultimate prize, ride in that downtown parade and become heroes who will be forever cherished in Los Angeles without him.

    “We need him, and he knows it,” Dodgers fielder Teoscar Hernandez said. ‘He’s great. You learn a lot from someone who has won MVPs, World Series and every award you can think of in baseball, and he has them.

    “He’s just Mookie. He does special things.”

    He’s also the reason why pitchers are forced to face Ohtani, knowing that if they throw around him, Betts can make them pay. When Ohtani opened the game with a 400-foot home run off Jose Quintana, the Mets threw the rest of the game around him. Ohtani walked in his next three at bats. And all three times, Betts delivered an immediate goal.

    “It was nice to see him perform really well, obviously in the situation where I am on base,” Ohtani said. “He looks really good and locked in.”

    Actually, the Dodgers say, it’s very simple.

    “It’s just Mookie,” Freeman says, “being Mookie.

    “And it is a beautiful thing.”

    Follow Bob Nightengale on X: @BNightengale

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