Dodgers hope change of scenery helps their World Series hopes

LOS ANGELES Palm trees! Shorts! Sunglasses! While the World Series isn’t quite a trip to the beach, the Boston Red Sox anticipate staying hot in balmy California, and the Los Angeles Dodgers hope a warm welcome will help them reverse a 2-0 deficit.

“I think the climate is a little different,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts deadpanned Thursday. “There’s a familiarity, obviously, for us. There’s been a lot of talk of outfield depth; we’re very familiar with the ballpark.”

Walker Buehler, a 24-year-old rookie right-hander, will be the centre of attention when he starts Game 3 for the Dodgers in Friday’s late-afternoon twilight against Rick Porcello. Not so Wednesday, when Buehler flew home from Boston ahead of his team and went unrecognized.

He missed a 4-2 win by the Red Sox at Fenway Park that opened a 2-0 Series lead. The Dodgers once again looked off-kilter in the cold of autumn in New England.

“We actually took off like 30 minutes before the first pitch and landed about 30 minutes before the last out,” he said.

Los Angeles travelled Thursday, deciding to get a full night’s sleep in a Boston hotel rather than flop on flat-bed airplane seats while cruising crosscountry through the night. Boston’s players spent the night at home, then jetted west.

Boston burst ahead in the Series at its 106-year-old ballpark, defined by the 37foot Green Monster in left. Now Los Angeles is back in its own elements. With the shift to the National League, the designated hitter vanishes. Boston manager Alex Cora must decide what to do with DH J.D. Martinez.