To be a great team you must have great players. One of the greatest in the game made a catch for the ages on Saturday night, and he's a big reason the Dodgers are a great team.
Mookie Betts robbed Tommy Pham of a game-tying base hit with two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning with an unreal diving catch to preserve a 2-0 Los Angeles win in front of another ramped up crowd at Petco Park.
After the Padres used their entire available bullpen in Friday night's 12-inning loss they needed a nice, long start from Yu Darvish. They got it. However, the Dodgers also got a fantastic outing from Clayton Kershaw that was just a tad bit better.
Darvish took a perfect game into the 5th inning and with two outs he hit Zach McKinstry with a pitch, gave up a single to Luke Raley, and walked Autin Barnes to load the bases. All he had to do was get Kershaw to keep the game scoreless.
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He didn't throw the opposing pitcher a single fastball and Kershaw drew a walk to force in the run for a 1-0 Dodgers lead. It was the only run Darvish allowed in 7.0 innings of work. He struck out nine hitters and ended up taking the loss because the future Hall of Fame lefty was dealing.
Kershaw worked 6.0 innings, allowing two hits and two walks with eight strikeouts, three of them coming against Padres superstar Fernando Tatis Jr.
In the 9th inning Justin Turner hit a solo home run off Emilio Pagan to make it a 2-0 Dodgers lead. But, like we'll see all year, the Padres didn't stop fighting. They put the tying run at 2nd base with two outs and Tommy Pham at the plate against Victor Gonzalez.
It looked like Pham had a game-tying base hit with a line drive to right-centerfield before Betts made the catch of the year.
I don't mean so far, I mean this will probably be the catch of the year in Major League Baseball in 2021.
The Padres try to avoid getting swept on Sunday afternoon when Blake Snell gets to see the Dodgers again for the first time since Game 6 of last year's World Series. He'll face Trevor Bauer.
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