Red Sox beat Dodgers to go 20 up
BOSTON: The Boston Red Sox, riding another strong outing from starter David Price and a clutch hit from JD Martinez, seized command of the World Series with a 42 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers yesterday.
Martinez broke open a tied game when he hit a basesloaded single that drove in a pair of runs to give the host Red Sox a lead they would not relinquish while Price pitched six innings of threehit ball.
With the win, Boston grabbed a 20 lead in the bestofseven final, which shifts to Los Angeles for games three and four tomorrow and Sunday.
‘‘We’re playing good baseball right now but that’s a very good team over there so we need to go to LA and not make it come back to Boston,’’ Price said
History is on Boston’s side as teams that have won the first two games of MLB’s showcase have gone on to win the series 80% of the time.
Price, who in his previous outing finally got a postseason win as a starter for the first time in 12 tries, was sharp again as he held the Dodgers to just two runs to earn the win.
The Dodgers, who lost consecutive games for the first time this postseason, were denied any chance of mounting a comeback as Price and the Red Sox bullpen combined to retire the final 16 batters they faced.
South Korean lefthander Ryu Hyunjin, making his first appearance at Fenway Park, was tagged for six hits and four runs in 42⁄3 innings before leaving the game with the bases loaded.
Ryu had retired seven consecutive batters but then allowed three straight batters to reach base with two outs before Ryan Madson replaced him and issued a fivepitch walk with the bases loaded before allowing Martinez’s bloop single to right field.
The Red Sox, who boast the highestscoring offence in Major League Baseball and are 90 this postseason when scor ing first, got on the board early when Ian Kinsler scored a run with a twoout single to left field in the second inning.
Los Angeles pulled ahead in the fourth inning but squandered a chance to blow the game open as they only managed to cash in a pair of runs despite loading the bases with no outs. —