Mookie Betts found himself on third base in the top of the fourth inning of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ game against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday evening. Usually the list of priorities when a player is in this spot goes something like “score” and then “do not get tagged out and prevent yourself from scoring,” but for Betts, an unexpected wrinkle was thrown into the equation.
Max Muncy checked his swing on a delivery from Angels pitcher Dylan Bundy, which led to a dribbler down the third-base line that went foul. In an attempt to keep Betts honest, Jose Rojas made the tag despite knowing nothing would come of it.
Well, one thing came of it: Rojas accidentally cup checked Betts, who went down in pain, because this is, uh, extremely painful.
Every man in the country felt that one pic.twitter.com/J7s3UvjUYd
— Blake Harris (@BlakeHarrisTBLA) May 9, 2021
A different angle shows that just about everyone on the diamond was able to laugh about this one, including Betts, which is the most important thing here.
Mookie goes down with your standard nut check
— The Baseball Newsletter (@bbletter) May 9, 2021
Betts would go on to score later in the at-bat, kicking off what ended up being a monstrous 8-run inning for the Dodgers against their crosstown rivals. It was such a big inning for L.A. that Betts was able to come up to the plate a second time in the top of the fourth, and hopefully, he had a cup on for that one.