Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts is the viral star of the 2020 World Series

The Los Angeles Dodgers winning the 2020 World Series over the Tampa Bay Rays didn’t make Mookie Betts a star.

He has already been a league MVP and batting champion. He’s a four-time All-Star playing on a 12-year, $365 million contract. He has even won a championship before. But this postseason with the Dodgers, everything Betts did seemed to become an instant trend. Anytime he did something, his name was all over social media, LeBron James was there with multiple exclamation points, and his plays became viral moments celebrating the amazing.

Here are the best moments from the postseason that made Betts a viral sensation.

The catches

Betts can do it all, as further proven by this postseason. The defense burst out in Game 5 of the NLCS against the Atlanta Braves. Down 3-1 in the series and trailing 2-0 in the game, he sprinted in to take away a Dansby Swanson hit that would have led to a run. Betts then threw home and got the double play.

Oh, but that was just the beginning. He had more ridiculous, momentum-swinging, run-saving catches that robbed more hits in Game 6.

And Game 7.

They were all huge plays with L.A. rallying back to win the NL pennant. Betts added another acrobatic catch in the World Series.

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Hitting, stealing and tacos

Betts went 7-for-26 at the plate in the World Series. He’s the first person since Babe Ruth in 1921 to steal two bases in one inning of a World Series game.

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Thanks to Taco Bell’s “Steal A Base, Steal A Taco” promotion, Betts won America free tacos with the first steal of the inning. For his Hall of Fame credentials, he’s baseball’s all-time leader for stealing bases that lead to free food. He stole the first base of the 2018 World Series while playing with the Boston Red Sox.

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Betts also homered in Game 1.

He stole two more bases in Game 3. Though, when you’ve coined “oppo taco,” how does it get better?

Game 6, that’s how. After striking out twice against Rays starter Blake Snell, Betts came alive after Snell was lifted from the game. In the sixth, he doubled and scored the go-ahead run on savvy baserunning on an infield grounder. Betts then homered in the bottom of the eighth as the Dodgers won their first World Series in 32 years.

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