The Boston Red Sox are still one win away from winning the World Series. In the 8-4 win over Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4, they made an impressive comeback and took advantage of fatal mistakes by the home side.
Game 3 saw the third Lefty-Lefty duel of this series with Rich Hill for the Dodgers as planned, while Eduardo Rodriguez was last used as a superficial reliever – last on the eve of game 3, but only for a battery at the end of the fifth inning.
Both sides started with one base runner each, each by walk. But both pitchers didn’t allow any more. Left Fielder Chris Taylor had the first hit in the game for Los Angeles in the second inning with two outs, but Rodriguez caught Austin Barnes “looking” for a strikeout.
In general, both pitchers showed strong performances, varied their pitches and never really allowed much. Justin Turner managed a lead-off single in the fourth inning, Christian Vazquez a 1-out single in the fifth, which broke the No-Hitter Hills. But both of them didn’t even see second base afterwards.
It was not until the sixth inning that Rodriguez began to waver. He opened the frame with a hit-by-pitch against David Freese, then striked out against Max Muncy and stood at 84 pitches after not starting for over a month. The next hitter was Justin Turner, who hit a double along the left field line. With runners on 2 and 3, Manny Machado was finally sent by Intentional Walk on Base to load the bases with an Out and have a Force Out on the record.
Rodriguez stayed in the game and played left-handed Cody Bellinger. He hit the first pitch – a changeup that got too much from the record – to First Baseman Steve Pearce. He confidently threw to Catcher Vazquez for the first out. But the throw back to first base only hit Bellinger’s back when he just arrived there. From there, the ball rebounded towards Foul Territory and Turner came home with a 1-0 lead and two runners on the corners with two outs.
However, Sox manager Alex Cora let Rodriguez continue despite this turbulence – and was severely punished: Yasiel Puig hit a 3-1 pitch for a 439-foot monster Homerun on the grandstand in left field. 4-0 Dodgers after six innings!
But that didn’t last very long. Hill opened the seventh inning with a walk for Xander Bogaerts and then struck out against Eduardo Nunez. Then it was over for the lefty. He was replaced by Scott Alexander, who distributed a walk to Brock Holt and was immediately replaced. Ryan Madson took over, forced the substitute Jackie Bradley Jr. to a popup to the Second Baseman and then did what he is particularly good at in this series: scoring Runners who were on base when he entered the Mound.
He dropped a 437-foot bomb against substitute Mitch Moreland and Boston was back in the game! Of course, the Red Sox achieved all three runs with two outs. 4:3 to L.A. only after seven innings.
Afterwards Dave Roberts brought Kenley Jansen to the start of the eighth inning like on Friday Closer. And again this one failed! With one out, he gave a home run to Pearce. Compensation! The Dodgers missed a chance with runners on the corners and so it went 4:4 into the ninth inning.
In the same it was Pinch-Hitter Rafael Devers, who brought home the latter with his RBI single to Double by Brock Holt. 5-4 Boston. That’s not all. A Pearce 3-Run-Double finally provided clear conditions in the game and in the series. Bogaerts finally added an RBI single for the ninth run in a row for Boston.
The Dodgers fought back a bit, but more than a Kike Hernandez Solo-Homerun in the ninth inning against Craig Kimbrel was not possible.
Game 5 of the series is in the night to Monday (1.15 am live on DAZN). Clayton Kershaw will try to prevent the Dodgers from leaving. The Red Sox in turn bet on their Ace Chris Sale.
Sometimes one swing is enough to give a game another twist. Mitch Moreland proved this in the seventh inning with his Pinch-Hit-3-Run-Homerun. It was the initial spark for the race to catch up, which extended over three innings for Boston. Three runs in the seventh, one each in the eighth and ninth. That was enough to decide the World Series in advance.
Also great: Steve Pearce, who equalized with his home run and finally took the game out of reach with his bases-clearing 3-run double (4 RBI).
Of course, games are decided by players. But managers are there to put players in position to succeed. Dave Roberts, on the other hand, drove this game against the wall! There was no reason to take Rich Hill out so early. Until the first out in the sixth inning, he had only allowed one hit and had the action under control. Instead, Roberts brought Madson, who now had seven “Inherited Runners” scored. Madson is clearly not in shape and should not have been used here. It was also incredible to ask Kenley Jansen for six more outs after he had failed the night before. Roberts opened the door for the Sox and they went through thankfully.
This article was published without prior review by Major League Baseball.