Boston Sports Extra

The Red Sox could not have gone into the All-Star break any better. Five wins outs of six against the Blue Jays and Tigers, including a sweep of the Tigers in Detroit. Now the MLB leading Dodgers are coming to town for a three-game series. Can the Red Sox get the second half off to the best possible start?

7/5Eduardo Rodriguez vs. Kenta Maeda (R) 7:10 pm NESN

7/6 David Price vs. Ross Stripling (R) 7:15 pm NESN

7/7 Chris Sale vs. Hyun-Jin Ryu (R) 7:00 pm ESPN

NOTABLE NUMBERS

PITCHERS

Things had been looking up for Sale, but they’ve gone a little awry in the last couple of weeks. His last two starts have seen 10 earned runs allowed in 11 2/3 innings. The worse news is that those starts were against the hardly fearsome offenses of the Blue Jays and White Sox. Now against the very good Los Angeles Dodgers he is going to need to be at his very best.

Hyun-Jin Ryu has been simply incredible this year. He has a 1.73 ERA on the season, with just 21 earned runs allowed. Even more impressive is that seven of those earned runs came in one start in Colorado, leaving just 14 earned runs in 105 innings. Outside of that one start in Colorado, he has a 1.20 ERA this season.

While both Maeda and Stripling have had solid seasons, they have had their issues on the road. 27 of the 40 earned runs allowed by Maeda have come away from Los Angeles, giving him a 5.52 ERA. As for Stripling, he has been marginally better with a 4.28 ERA on the road. Those numbers present a real opportunity for the Red Sox.

HITTERS

I have mentioned numerous times in this article about the Red Sox record against right-handed pitchers, but it bears repeating here. They rank first in the majors in batting average and OBP, second in BB% and OPS, and 10th in ISO. When you have three quality right-handed pitchers on the mound, these impressive numbers become even more important than ever.

It has worked out well for the Red Sox that they have three left-handed starters lined up for this one. The Dodgers rank among the top-five in most hitting categories. However, when left-handed pitchers are on the mound their numbers take a little dip. They rank 11th in batting average, 10th in slugging, and 12th is ISO when lefties are on the mound. Still good, but not as good as when righties are facing them.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Pitching: All eyes will be on the Sale and Ryu game. However for the Red Sox, their focus needs to be on the first two games more than ever. No matter how good Sale is they have to assume that Ryu will win that game. That could pile the pressure on Rodriguez and Sale. It could also relieve the pressure on Sale and we may see his best outing of the season. Either way, this is going to be a fascinating series.

Hitting: After facing a relatively weak pitching group in both the Blue Jays and Tigers, things are about to get very different. All three of the pitchers they face in this series have an ERA under four. The Red Sox hitters are going to have to be at their World Series-winning best to come away from this series with a couple of wins.

EXPECTATIONS

The Red Sox did exactly what they needed to do before the All-Star break, giving them a launchpad for the second half of the season. They are not in the box seat, but they are also not completely out of the picture either.

This series against the Dodgers presents a real opportunity for the Red Sox to lay down a marker. Take two or three of these games off the Dodgers and the Yankees and Rays might just sit up and take notice. It may sound easy on paper, but this will be a tough series for the Red Sox, and they will need to be at their very best to get anything from it.

It took 18 innings, but the Red Sox lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 in World Series Game 3. A heart breaker for the Red Sox. This puts the Sox up 2-1 in the series and still in the cat birds seat for a World Series Championship.

Eduardo Nunez’s Wild Ride

It’s Eduardo Nunez’s world and we’re all just living in it. It was the top of the 13th inning. The score was 1-1. On a bad ankle and knee he was beat up and pushed around in the batter’s box. He had Brock Holt, who had walked after an 0-2 count, standing at first. During the wild pitch that lead to Nunez’s adventure, Holt scampered to second.

The Red Sox Break Through

After a visit from the trainers and Alex Cora he settled in and waited for a pitch from lefty Scott Alexander. The pitch came in and he swung, a little nubber into no man’s land in front of the mound. The first baseman, Max Muncy, broke for the ball, but the pitcher got there first.

Even gimpy, Nunez got down the line and did what you are never supposed to do. He slid. Amazingly, wonderfully, Alexander’s throw went beyond the grasp of second baseman Kiki Hernandez, who was covering first. While all that was going on Brock Holt went from second to home to take the lead 2-1.

The Dodgers Come Back

By this time the lineup Alex Cora had was make shift at best. Christian Vazquez, catcher, was at first and Eduardo Nunez, pulling a Willis Reed, was at third. Nathan Eovaldi, the supposed Game 4 starter was pitching. Max Muncy walked on a questionable check swing call ball four.

The next batter, Cody Bellinger, skied a foul ball towards the stands on the third base side. Nunez sprinted over and caught the ball, barreling into the stands.

With 2 outs, however, Yasiel Puig hit his own ball into no man’s land. Ian Kinsler was in the game to run for JD Martinez earlier in this game. A bad decision by Cora, one of his very few. Kinsler barely got to it at second base and threw wildly to first. Vazquez didn’t have a chance.

Muncy scored to make the game 2-2.

Jackie Bradley Jr.

A brief timeout to raise up Jackie Bradley Jr. The whole reason the Red Sox were in that position in the first place was because of him. There were two outs in the top of the 8th and the Dodgers closer, Kenley Jansen, was on the mound.

The score was 1-0 Dodgers after an outstanding outing from rookie Walker Buehler. No matter, JBJ knew what to do.

Many questioned his spot in the lineup. Not Boston Sports Extra. His solo Home Run set up the extra inning theatrics.

Nathan Eovaldi

With Nathan Eovaldi doing yeoman’s work the score remained 2-2 into the 18th inning. Yeoman’s work doesn’t cover it.

Eovaldi pitched the most pitches in relief in world series history. He pitched 6 plus innings of 1 run ball on short rest, along with the unearned run from the Kinsler error.

Max Muncy took him deep for a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 18th.

This game pushed well into October 27th. If that date is familiar to you as a Red Sox fan, it should be. That was the date in 2004 The Curse was destroyed. So today isn’t all bad.