LA’s home after getting cold shoulder in Boston
Boston — Fenway Park gave the Los Angeles Dodgers the cold shoulder.
No wonder they were California Dreamin' about Thursday's flight home.
"I think all the players are happy about going back to LA, but obviously we have some games to win," pitcher HyunJin Ryu said through a translator after Wednesday night's 4-2 loss to Boston dropped the Dodgers into a 2-0 World Series hole. "I think all the other players will be able to focus more and try to come back from this deficit."
Fenway Park, at 106 the oldest big league ballpark, is crammed onto 9 acres in downtown Boston, the 37-foothigh Green Monster in left field a target for hitters and a terror for pitchers.
Dodger Stadium, a modern ballpark when opened in 1962 but now the third-oldest, sits atop 300 acres of land in Chavez Ravine near downtown Los Angeles, surrounded by tiered parking lots with palm trees beyond the fences and the San Gabriel Mountains shimmering in the distance.
While Fenway is urban tumult, Dodger Stadium symbolizes the sunny Californian way of life. But expect a pumpedup crowd for Game 3 tonight, especially after Vin Scully's recorded call of "It's Time for Dodger Baseball!"
"It's going to be warmer, and hopefully our bats get hot, too," Cody Bellinger said .
Used to the balmy breezes at home and usually hospitable weather in the NL West, Los Angeles hadn't started a game this year in a temperature below 58. Facing a 53-degree Though Rocco Baldelli’s time as a player was cut short by physical ailments, his career in baseball was only beginning to take off. The mind and the heart can be powerful forces. Seeking a fresh voice for their underachieving young players, the Minnesota Twins made the 37-year-old Baldelli the youngest manager in the major leagues on Thursday by hiring a sought-after candidate who interviewed for vacancies with four other teams. The former Tampa Bay Rays player, assistant and coach will be a first-time manager, the first in the major leagues born in the 1980s. He replaces Paul Molitor, who was fired after four seasons with a 305-343 record . “I like to have fun. I like for the players to love showing up to that environment, to that clubhouse,” Baldelli said, adding: “I feel like when guys are relaxed and having fun out on the field, they play their best.” Baldelli spent the last four years on the staff of Rays manager Kevin Cash, the first three as first base coach. His role for 2018 was a newly created position called major league field coordinator, chill at the beginning of the opener, the Dodgers lost 8-4. It was just 46 in the first inning for Game 2, and the Dodgers' bats were cold again — their last 16 hitters retired in order.
"This is the first time we've played in obviously weather like this — San Francisco a little bit, but nothing like this," manager Dave Roberts said before the game. "So it's an adjustment, and that's part of the home-field advantage and especially being in the bullpen, where you have a little heater, but still have to kind of get hot and stay hot.”
No team has overcome a 2-0 Series deficit since 1996, when the Yankees lost twice at home to Atlanta before sweeping three games on the road and winning Game 6 in New York.
Ryan Madson was unusually open about how out of sorts the Dodgers were on late October nights in the Northeast.
helping Cash and bench coach Charlie Montoyo with in-game strategy, working with the outfielders and focusing on the continued development of the team’s young players. Montoyo was hired as manager Thursday by Toronto. Baldelli’s most recent experience fit perfectly with what Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey and general manager Thad Levine sought. “He connects exceptionally well to people. His humility, his open-mindedness, but also there’s a strong sense of opinion there. He has a lot of ideas as how to help players,” said Falvey, who is just 35.
Charlie Montoyo, a bench coach for Tampa Bay this season, was hired as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. He succeeds John Gibbons, who was let go after the team finished 73-89. The Blue Jays will officially introduce Montoyo during a news conference Monday at Rogers Centre. He has a three-year contract with a club option for 2022. “I am extremely honored and humbled to join the Toronto Blue Jays organization,” Montoyo said in a statement. “Managing a team that represents an entire nation is incredibly special. My family and I look forward to working toward the ultimate goal of winning a championship for this city.”
"Last night in the bullpen, we had a couple of heaters going," he said before Game 2. "It was warm out there, but to get up and move around, I didn't feel as gummy as usual when it's 75, 80 degrees. So I'm going to make that adjustment tonight, move around a little bit more. I'm going to tell the guys who didn't pitch last night, just move around a little bit more than usual, move your knee joints. But maybe they're young and they don't feel it."
Madson's problem was the lack of movement on his pitches, as well as a changeup he threw for a wild pitch in Game 1. Brought in to relieve Ryu and protect a 2-1 lead with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth a night later, he walked Steve Pearce and gave up a two-run single to J.D. Martinez before throwing a single offspeed pitch.