LOS ANGELES — This was not the place to come to cool off.
The hottest team in baseball, the Boston Red Sox, won 21 of 25 games during the month of July (including the opener of this series on Friday night) and kept the heat on into August, beating the Dodgers, 3-2, on Saturday night.
The Dodgers will lose a series for the first time since before the All-Star break, when they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks – but they won the weekend off the field, reaching agreement on a trade to bring two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal to their rotation.
“They’re young. They’re athletic. They’ve got a good ’pen, really good pitching. They play good defense and they put the ball in play,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the Red Sox. “They play winning baseball. Guys like Rafaela, Durbin, Monasterio – they’re grinders. They play the game the right way and they find ways to win.”
They found a way despite getting outhit 10-4 by the Dodgers on Saturday. Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto made just one mistake – but he made it twice.
Ceddanne Rafaela took Yamamoto deep in the first and third innings – Rafaela’s second and third home runs in the first two games of this series. In both cases, Rafaela hit splitters that stayed up – above the waist in the first inning, waist-high for the second homer.
“If I was able to hit the spot I wanted to, the result would have been different,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter.
After Rafaela’s third-inning homer, though, Yamamoto retired the next 13 Red Sox batters in order.
Teoscar Hernandez only needed one swing to match Rafaela’s two.
Freddie Freeman led off the second inning with a single on his way to his fifth three-hit game in the past nine. Two batters later, Hernandez lined a two-run home run over the wall in right field.
“Like I always say, timing is (of) big importance for every hitter and swing decisions,” Hernandez said. “Right now, I’m swinging at good pitches to hit, being patient and getting your pitch to hit. I think when you do that you get good results.”
Hernandez had his own multi-hit game, adding two singles to his home run. But it was a painful night for him. During his fourth-inning at-bat, Hernandez fouled a ball off the top of his left foot. He struggled to put weight on his foot for some time – then stepped in and lined a single to left field, hobbling down to first base.
“It was painful, but I think I’ve missed so much time. I’m going to fight this one through,” said Hernandez, who missed a month earlier this season with a hamstring injury.
Two batters later, Miguel Rojas did the same thing as Rojas, fouling a ball hard off the top of his foot. Rojas stayed in the game for a couple of innings before coming out. He will be unavailable Sunday, Roberts said, and then re-evaluated after that.
While Yamamoto slipped into cruise control after Rafaela’s second home run, Red Sox starter Peyton Tolle had more traffic to navigate. The Dodgers had nine hits and two walks in his six innings but stranded six baserunners by going 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position against Tolle.
“We did part of the work, throwing out the hits,” Roberts said. “We hadn’t seen Tolle. He’s got a good fastball, then they go to those three guys in the ’pen. Really good ’pen. Yeah, we had opportunities but unfortunately it just wasn’t meant to be tonight.”
The Dodgers helped Tolle skate through with a pair of baserunning mistakes.
In the first inning, Shohei Ohtani led off with a single. When Andy Pages sent a fly ball to the warning track in right field, Ohtani tagged up and tried to advance to second. He was thrown out by Wilyer Abreu.
“I like the thought of not conceding, giving up on second base but he (Abreu) got behind it pretty well and he threw it really well, arm accuracy,” Roberts said. “I like the aggressiveness but unfortunately they made a really good play.”
Roberts failed to criticize Ohtani for the bad baserunning decision – not his first recently. Ohtani was also thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple and a single into a double during last week’s games in Philadelphia and New York.
Andy Pages’ baserunning mistake was more physical than mental. He sent a line drive to the wall in right-center and slid into second ahead of the throw from Abreu. But the Red Sox challenged the call and replays showed Pages coming off the bag as shortstop Andruw Monasterio held the tag on him.
The game went into the eighth inning tied, 2-2, and the Red Sox finally got their own action on the bases against Yamamoto.
Monasterio led off with a ground-rule double then went to third when Jarren Duran dropped a bunt up the first-base line and beat it out for a single. Connor Wong bounced into a double play and the go-ahead run scored quietly.
Aroldis Chapman closed it out for the Red Sox in the ninth.