Red Sox work that old Fenway magic FALSE START
Boston rides home-field advantage to win World Series opener, writes Rob Longley.
It starts when the Red Sox opposition crams its way into the tiniest visitor’s clubhouse in all of big-league baseball.
It continues when the opposition takes the field and sees the Green Monster in left field, the Pesky Pole in right, and the various turns and indentations and other impediments in the outfield.
And when it comes to the World Series, more often than not, Fenway happens.
The American League champion Boston Red Sox made ample use of their beloved 106-year-old ballpark on Tuesday night to get an early jump in baseball’s 114th World Series.
It wasn’t always pretty — for either team — but a Red Sox squad that won 108 regularseason games struck first in this much-anticipated best-of-seven series with an 8-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Red Sox have now won eight of their past nine Fenway Park games in World Series play, a formidable home-field advantage if one ever existed. And how about this form? They’ve now won five in a row this postseason, including the final four against the defending champion Houston Astros in the ALCS.
As for the Fenway factor, take as an example the three-run seventh inning that blew things wide open after the duel between starting pitchers Chris Sale of the Sox and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers never materialized.
Andrew Benintendi started it off with his fourth hit of the ball game, a blooper of a ground-rule double that should have been caught by Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson.
Instead, as the stands that jut out on the third-base line got close in a hurry, Pederson flinched and missed.
Four batters later, pinch-hitter Eduardo Nunez crushed a line drive that just barely cleared the Monster. Three runs scored and Fenway was in full frenzy.
As if to convince themselves of the fact, player after Dodgers player said in the days leading up to Game 1 that while yes, it’s a quirky place, it was no big deal.
Apparently it is, however, as the evidence certainly shows.
With infrequent visits here, National League teams rarely get comfortable. The only impact Dodgers player well-versed in the Fenway Follies was shortstop Manny Machado. No surprise, then, that he had three of the Dodgers’ four RBIs.
In what’s unfolding as a magical season, the Sox have showed from the end of spring training that they’re good. First-year manager Alex Cora can’t seem to miss on pushing all the right buttons, as he did with the Nunez pinch-hit call.
But playing at Fenway certainly doesn’t hurt, either. Now three wins away from their fourth title since 2004, Boston is on an incredible run in baseball’s final round.
They’re now 13-2 in their past 15 World Series games, having swept the Cardinals in 2004, the Rockies in 2007 and also beating the Cardinals 4-2 in 2013.
There’s still some baseball to be played in this one, of course, but the winner of Game 1 has gone on to win the World Series 70 times (61.9 per cent) and 17 of the past 21 years.
The game was rightfully handicapped as a duel between starting aces, Sale versus Kershaw, but never came close to living up to that billing.
Though Sale struck out seven, his strategy of pitching to the edges wasn’t working all that well, and with 91 pitches, he left after four-plus innings and three earned runs.
Kershaw seemed a little more comfortable, but when he allowed a Mookie Betts walk and Benintendi single to lead off the fifth, manager Dave Roberts had seen enough.
His starter was given the hook and wasn’t too happy about it, quite obviously avoiding eye contact with his manager as he briskly walked to the third-base dugout. Kershaw was surely even more ticked off when those two runners came in to score and give the Sox a 5-3 lead after five.
Combined, the aces gave up 12 hits and eight earned runs, and for the first time since 2004, both Game 1 World Series starters didn’t make it out of the fifth inning.
YAZ, DROPKICK MURPHYS, TAYLOR AND MOOKIE
The Dodgers aren’t about to admit they’re intimidated, but the sensory overload is loud and it’s real. It started when the Red Sox’s own Great 8, Carl Yastrzemski, threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
That was met with the predictable standing ovation, and following James Taylor’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, the Dropkick Murphys’ Shipping Up To Boston — a New England sporting anthem — rocked old Fenway. And by the 8:10 p.m. ET first pitch, the sellout crowd was ready and then some.
The Sox took advantage of that momentum with none other than Betts, the AL MVP favourite, getting it started. After a leadoff single to centre, Betts stole second and then scored on a Benintendi hit up the middle. Two batters in, the Sox were on the board.
AROUND THE BASES
With the starters out early, it led to a long night of pitching changes and manager moves in a game that ended just under the four-hour mark … Case in point, by the seventh inning, only three Dodgers players were in the positions where they started the game ... Once again the Sox were clutch with two down, scoring four of their runs in that manner.