Mookie Betts had an August for the ages.
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ superstar finished the month with an absurd .455 batting average, 11 home runs and 51 hits, leading the franchise to its first 24-win month since moving to the West Coast.
Betts’ red-hot month not only inserted him into the National League MVP conversation, it also helped Los Angeles all but put away the NL West.
But Thursday night, during a thrilling 8-7 loss to the Braves at Dodger Stadium, Betts elevated his month of August from excellent to historic, going 2-for-4 with two home runs, a walk and three runs scored.
The performance helped Betts become just the third player since 1900 — and first in nearly a century — to have a .450+ batting average with 50-plus hits and 10-plus home runs in a single month, joining all-time greats Babe Ruth (July 1923 and 1924) and Lou Gehrig (June 1930), according to ESPN Stats & Info.
It was just the 12th time in MLB history that a player hit .450-plus and hit 10-plus home runs in a calendar month (min. 90 PAs) and the first time since Barry Bonds did it in April 2004.
As you can imagine, Betts also broke all sorts of Los Angeles Dodger records.
Betts’ 35 runs scored and 51 hits were the most in a single calendar month during the franchise’s Los Angeles era.
He is also just the third Dodger to hit .450 and fourth to have a 1.300 OPS (min. 90 PAs) in a month.
Betts did all of this while flip-flopping between second base and right field, and playing solid defense while doing so, allowing the Dodgers to play the match-ups as needed.
His amazing month also included a return to Fenway Park in Boston where he called home for the first six seasons of his career.
Betts, who won the AL MVP and World Series in 2018 with the Red Sox, dominated his former team during the series, going 7-for-15 with a home run and two doubles over the three-game series.
Betts is now essentially the co-favorite to win the NL MVP Award next to Ronald Acuna Jr., who also had himself an outstanding night Thursday, going 3-for-4 with a home run and becoming the first player in MLB history to hit 30 long balls and steal 60 bases in a single season.
That Betts is even in the MVP conversation with Acuna putting up those numbers (and hitting .337, to boot) is incredible, but after a month like his August, he’s right in the mix.