Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts are far behind, Yoshinobu Yamamoto's turning point – San Diego Union-Tribune

LOS ANGELES – Xander Bogaerts won his second World Series at Dodger Stadium in 2018. A young Mookie Betts didn't make it to Boston in time for Bogaerts to win as a rookie five years earlier, but after a couple of last-place finishes in the AL East in 2014 and 2015, three straight division titles were the result of a superteam that won 108 games and one won another World Series.

Before the eyes of the two Red Sox stars, a bright future seemed to be emerging in Boston.

It just didn't happen that way.

Betts was traded to Los Angeles before the 2020 season. Bogaerts waived his six-year, $132 million extension after the 2022 season and landed in San Diego.

Six years after leading the Red Sox to their last World Series, the two former teammates stand in each other's way as West Coast rivals.

“He was the first to go, and that really affected our team, our organization,” Bogaerts remembers. “It was really hard to bring our best player to another team. Since then, he has been the best or one of the best players in the business for virtually his entire career. I give him a lot of credit for his hard work and what kind of guy he is.

“He’s definitely special.”

In Los Angeles, Betts has become a mainstay in the postseason. He hit .262/.353/.393 with three home runs in 38 games, helping the Dodgers win a World Series in 2020 and advance as deep as the NLCS in 2021.

As for Bogaerts, his Red Sox advanced to the ALCS without Betts in 2021, but he hadn't appeared in the postseason since until the Padres secured the NL's top wild-card spot this year.

After the Padres flopped last year, Bogaerts is making sure his new teammates understand how rare the opportunity is before them.

“After I won my freshman year, I kind of thought this was how it was supposed to be or how it was going to be,” said Bogaerts, who went 0-for-7 against the Braves before scoring two runs on two hits Saturday. “I think the next two years we were last, which was tough. I tell them that I appreciate that it’s not luck or chance to get this far, and that I appreciate it because you never know when you’ll get the opportunity to be at this point again.”

Turning point?

Including Saturday's start, the Padres have scored 13 runs in three games (9 IP). Yoshinobu Yamamoto in his first season in the States.

The Padres hit Yamamoto for five runs in an inning in his MLB debut in March in South Korea, hit two home runs in five innings off him in an April start and chased him for five runs on five hits and two walks from Saturday's start after just three innings.

Yamamoto's ineffectiveness was so pronounced that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts wondered if the 26-year-old Japanese import was typing his pitches.

“There are a few things that I think we'll address because I think at second base they had some things with his glove and giving away some pitches,” Roberts said. “We’ll clean this up. That's part of baseball. So it’s up to us to kind of clean it up and not reveal what pitch he’s going to throw.”

Regarding Roberts' point of view: Fernando Tatis Jr. was on second base when Manny Machado pulled a 1-2 splitter to left to give the Padres a 3-0 lead. Tatis was also the runner at second for Bogaerts' two-run double in the third.

Walker Buhler And Landon Knack are the Dodgers' presumed starters for Games 3 and 4, although the team has not announced any plans after Sunday.

Yamamoto and Jack Flaherty would be considered for Game 5 if necessary.

Originally published: October 6, 2024 at 4:28 p.m