The Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960, coming from Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, which led to the team’s name. The Dodgers, who arrived in town two years earlier, have made Los Angeles the land of 10,000 home runs.
That’s how many homers the Dodgers have hit since moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958. No. 10,000 was courtesy of Mookie Betts, who hit a solo home run with two outs in the first inning on Saturday against Miami Marlins right-hander Tyler Phillips.
Max Muncy followed Betts
with another solo shot for back-to-back home runs and now 10,001 home runs in Los Angeles Dodgers history.
It’s a fitting duo surrounding the milestone, with Muncy’s 237 home runs the fifth-most for in franchise, and Betts at 172 homer runs broke a tie with Pedro Guerrero for 11th place. Since moving to Los Angeles, Muncy is second in home runs and Betts is seventh.
Dodgers team historian Mark Langill wrote about the approaching home run milestone for the Dodgers, with a focus on infielder Dick Gray, whose two-run shot against the San Francisco Giants at Seals Stadium in San Francisco on April 16, 1958, in the teams’ second game on the west coast, was the first home run hit by a Los Angeles Dodger.
Gray hit 11 of his 12 career home runs with the Dodgers, and as Langill points out also homered on April 18, 1958 at the Los Angeles Coliseum, making Gray the first player to hit both the first home and first road home runs in LA Dodgers history.
Betts has four home runs in September, and 20 on the season, his ninth career season with at least 20 home runs. When he crossed the plate in the first inning on Saturday scored a run in his 11th consecutive game. That’s just one game shy of an LA Dodgers record, shared by Betts himself (May 13-24, 2022) and Rafael Furcal (June 24-July, 2010).
