Alexander: Mookie Betts’ fresh start helps Dodgers sweep Padres

LOS ANGELES — A week or so ago, Dodgers’ Mookie Betts talked about reacting to a nearly season-long slump by giving up the chase for individual stats and going at-bat to at-bat, with an emphasis on whatever benefits the team the most.

It’s working. And maybe it’s contagious, and if so perhaps the Dodgers have less to worry about than we anticipated just days before.

They were dreadfully down just a few days ago, a four-game losing streak punctuated by blown saves and runners left on base, capping a 12-21 stretch, which in turn dissipated what had been a nine-game division lead.

They are riding high again, just three games later, after Sunday’s 5-4 victory over San Diego completed a three-game sweep of the Padres and put the Dodgers back up in the National League West by two games.

And Betts, relieved of worrying about individual honors in large part because of what for him is a sickly slash line – .242 batting average, .312 on base percentage, .371 slugging percentage – put the crowning touch on Sunday’s triumph with his 13th home run of the year leading off the eighth inning, on a 2-0 pitch by Padres relief stud Robert Suarez, to break a 4-4 tie.

To clarify, this is what Betts told reporters two Fridays ago, in the wake of an extended slump – possibly the residual effects of last season’s broken hand, possibly influenced by the position switch that has made him a full-time shortstop – that kept him out of the All-Star Game and has resulted in career lows in several categories:

“My season’s kind of over. We’re going to have to chalk that up as not a great season. But I can go out and help the boys win every night, do something, get an RBI, make a play, do something that I’m going to have to shift my focus there. Obviously, everyone wants to have great seasons, but it’s a lot easier when you just don’t worry about the season. You just worry about game to game.”

Now, let’s clarify something here: This is a sport in which chasing individual stats doesn’t necessarily translate to not being a team guy. Baseball is an individual pursuit, especially that mano-a-mano battle between hitter and pitcher. For the most part the pursuit of a .300 batting average or 40 home runs or 200 hits usually contributes to winning rather than detracting from it.

And give Mookie credit for honesty, because a day after making those comments, he acknowledged that he wants to be in the Hall of Fame someday – like, who doesn’t? – and “you have to accept these numbers are always going to be there. It’s kind of hard to accept that. But at the end of the day, it is what it is. I just have to find ways to help the team win.”

Sunday, he did so, dramatically breaking a tie the Padres had created at the top of the eighth. Asked afterward if he got any clarity from this approach, if maybe it freed him up to do damage on Suarez’s 2-0 four-seamer, he said, “Every at-bat’s the same at this point. You’re just trying to do something productive. So it definitely helps, not carrying burdens from previous at-bats.

“… I finally did something good for the boys. That’s what the bat means. I’ve done a decent job with the glove, but (with) the bat, I really haven’t done much, so it’s just good to help.”

Before Sunday’s game, manager Dave Roberts talked about “team at-bats,” and it’s quite possible that the urgency he wanted to see from his team this weekend – and did see – might have manifested itself in a hitter maybe giving himself up or altering his approach.

“My ask is to just be a better hitter, to fight and to, you know, put together (good) at-bats, and that’s pretty much in any player’s control, versus trying to hit a certain amount of homers or whatever, ribbies or this or that,” he said, then noted that the urgency of a close race might demand more of those situational at-bats than a breeze to the wire, as has happened in other seasons.

“We’ve done it where you have a big lead and then you can kind of coast,” he said. “And guys are kind of trying to cement their numbers or their seasons or whatever.

“But now when you’re in (a tight race), you’ve got to win baseball games, right? And so it comes with more sacrifice. Whether it’s a (sacrifice bunt) here or getting a guy over, a sacrifice fly, shortening up on the bat, winning (individual) pitches … I kind of default to that type of play all the time. That’s who I was as a ball player. So I see no downside in playing that type of baseball.”

As for Betts, it’s worth noting that in the last 11 games, dating back to Aug. 5, his slash line is .340/.413/.522, with two homers, nine RBI and 12 runs scored.

“Mookie’s been very good for a couple of weeks now,” said Freddie Freeman, whose own three-run homer in the first inning off Yu Darvish got things rolling. “That was huge. A 2-0 fastball, he’s able to stay through it, backspin the ball, hit it over the fence in a big situation. It’s saying it all.

“The last few weeks. Mookie Betts is going to be Mookie Betts, and no one in here is worried about him. So it’s good to see him get some results.”

Others can benefit from that sort of mindset, and left fielder Michael Conforto, whose numbers (.191/.301/.328) are even more sickly, might be another of those guys convinced to abandon the season-long numerical goals and concentrate on situational at-bats.

“I would say it’s actually freeing, in the sense of you’re not expecting to put up a certain OPS or this or that,” Roberts said. “You’re just trying to help the team win.”

And maybe, in the case of the star accustomed to pursuing and getting the big numbers, it’s almost liberating to take that different approach.

“Just to take the pressure off, trying to recover from the (first part of) the season and kind of get more micro and just game-to-game and at-bat to at-bat,” Roberts said. “It’s just easier, a better quality of life. And certainly we’re seeing the performance from Mookie.”

If it continues and helps propel the Dodgers down the stretch, his those numbers from the first 5½ months will be easily forgotten.

jalexander@scng.com