CLEVELAND — Mookie Betts matched his career high with five hits and drove in two runs, sending the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-1 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday in the completion of a suspended game.
Betts singled four times in the first six innings and had a two-run double in the eighth for the NL West-leading Dodgers, who are 18-3 in August. The seven-time All-Star, who also had five hits for Boston against Kansas City on Aug. 26, 2016, is batting .561 during an 11-game hitting streak and has a .456 average this month.
The teams were to play their regularly scheduled game later Thursday, with the Guardians’ Gavin Williams to face Ryan Pepiot.
Los Angeles led 3-1 after two innings Wednesday when heavy rain forced play to be suspended after a 1 hour, 37 minute stoppage. Another round of storms arrived after the bottom of the eighth Thursday, delaying the game for 72 minutes.
Gus Varland (1-0) worked 1 1/3 innings for his first big league win as seven pitchers combined for a four-hitter. Guardians starter Xzavion Curry (3-2) gave up three runs in three innings.
Kiké Hernández had a two-run double, Freddy Freeman had three hits and an RBI and Will Smith added a sacrifice fly for the Dodgers.
PHOTOS: Betts has 5 hits and 2 RBIs as Dodgers beat Guardians 6-1 in suspended game
Cleveland’s lone run came in the first when José Ramírez homered off Clayton Kershaw, who struck out four over two innings in his third start since returning from a sore left shoulder.
The Guardians completed their first suspended home game since June 24-25, 1994, when they lost to the Yankees at Cleveland Stadium.
HOMECOMING
Guardians C Eric Haase, who was claimed off waivers from Detroit on Monday, appeared in his first game with the franchise since 2019. He went 1 for 4 after batting .201 with four homers and 26 RBIs for the Tigers.
Haase was a seventh-round pick by Cleveland in the 2011 amateur draft but only played in 19 major league games before being designated for assignment eight years later.
UP NEXT
Dodgers: RHP Lance Lynn (9-9, 5.60 ERA) makes his fifth start for Los Angeles in the opener of a three-game series in Boston. Lynn is 3-0 with a 1.44 ERA since being acquired from the White Sox.
Guardians: RHP Tanner Bibee (9-3, 3.01 ERA) pitches the first game of a three-game series in Toronto. Bibee is tied for first among AL rookies in victories with Houston’s Hunter Brown and J.P. France.
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