PHILADELPHIA – Maybe for the first time since 2020, the Dodgers can simply say — that’s just Mookie being Mookie.

The Dodgers were guilty of a baserunning mistake, a defensive gaffe and stranded nine baserunners but redeemed it all by scoring three times in the last two innings against the Philadelphia Phillies’ punch-drunk bullpen to win 7-4 Saturday and extend their winning streak to seven games.

Mookie Betts was at the center of all of it. He went 3 for 4, drove in three runs with a solo home run and a two-run double but ran the Dodgers out of a potential go-ahead rally when he was picked off second base in the seventh inning.

In the eighth, Will Smith botched a rundown play, allowing the Phillies to load the bases with one out. But Betts came to the rescue again, catching Alec Bohm’s low line drive and firing a one-hop throw home to nail Odubel Herrera who tagged at third and was trying to score the go-ahead run.

“He was great,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I mean – gosh, that’s why he’s one of the best players in baseball. What he did in the box, what he did in right field – he’s just playing elite baseball right now And we need every bit of it.

“It’s one of those things where as he goes we go. But it’s really fun to watch.”

Betts has definitely been going. Batting .178 with only two extra-base hits (doubles) through the first 12 games of the season, Betts has gone 33 for 105 (.314) starting with his two-homer game in San Diego on April 22, scoring 30 runs and driving in 20 over his past 26 games.

He’s been even better recently, going 14 for 38 (.368) with six doubles, four home runs and 12 runs scored over his past nine games.

Not coincidentally, the Dodgers just passed the halfway mark in their 31-in-30 stretch with 11 wins in the first 16 games of the gauntlet.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s just the process – enjoying the process instead of trying to hunt for results,” Betts said when asked to explain his return to form. “I think once I changed my mind to enjoy the process … just let the game be the game, it’s coming out pretty good.

“I just have to continue to do the same thing and have fun playing the game.”

There were some not-so-fun moments along the way. Betts slipped and fell rounding second base on his fifth-inning double, scrambling back to second base and clutching his left arm in pain. Dodger blue-bleeding hearts skipped a beat but Betts gathered himself and remained in the game to perform more heroics.

“I didn’t hit the base right, slipped on it,” Betts said. “I tried to put my arm down to brace the fall. I think it was a little stinger or something. It (his left shoulder) went numb for a second but the feeling started coming back so I knew I was okay. … Freak accident.”

The Dodgers seemed set to break a 4-4 tie in the seventh when Betts was picked off second base, derailing that rally.

“I made a bad baserunning play there where we could have took the lead,” he said. “Then I was able to make up for it on the defensive end.”

Short-handed in the starting rotation to begin with, the Dodgers chose to give Tony Gonsolin five days between starts this week – and avoid starting Tyler Anderson against a team that has enjoyed facing lefties. That set up the first ‘bullpen game’ of the season.

Opener Mitch White gave up a run on an RBI double by Jean Segura after walking the leadoff man in the second then gave up a two-run home run to Alec Bohm in the third inning. Kyle Schwarber made it a 4-1 Phillies lead with a solo home run off David Price in the fourth.

But the Phillies didn’t get a hit in the last 5 2/3 innings against Phil Bickford, Brusdar Graterol, Justin Bruihl, Daniel Hudson and Craig Kimbrel.

“It felt really good,” Graterol said through an interpreter of the group effort. “We had that mentality of going out there and getting the outs that we needed to get.

“We knew it was going to be a bullpen day, so we went out there and got the outs we needed.”

The Dodgers finally put together the winning rally in the eighth — coming from behind for the sixth time during this seven-game win streak.

Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger led off with singles to light the fuse – it was Turner’s third hit of the game. A wild pitch by Seranthony Dominguez moved the runners up with one out and brought the infield in. Gavin Lux burned the Phillies for the second time this week, lining a single over the infield to drive in the go-ahead run. Dominguez’s second wild pitch brought Bellinger in with a second run.

Austin Barnes entered as a pinch-runner during the eighth — and stayed around as the DH to hit a solo home run in the ninth.

In their six games against the Phillies over the past 10 days, the Dodgers have scored 15 runs on 25 hits and 23 walks in 23 1/3 innings against the Phillies’ bullpen.

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