Red Sox return home and fall short against Dodgers

Boston Globe

2 days ago

The Red Sox hung in most of the night against the defending World Series champions. But ultimately it was another loss to another club considered one of baseball's best. Hernández's blast turned a one-run deficit — doable against an injury-ravaged Los Angeles bullpen — into a three-run hole that proved insurmountable. And it drew audible cheers, Dodgers fans making up a significant portion of the sellout crowd of 36,369.
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With two games to go in this post-All-Star-break 'gauntlet,' as chief baseball officer Craig Breslow described it, against high-end National League clubs, the Red Sox are 2-5. They have held a lead at the end of just 10 innings out of 66 played.
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The Sox managed to hold Shohei Ohtani, whom manager Alex Cora before the game dubbed 'the best athlete in the universe,' to an unremarkable 1-for-4 line with a single, a walk, and two strikeouts.
With two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth, Rob Refsnyder represented the would-be tying run. But he grounded out against Ben Casparius, a Connecticut native and UConn alumnus who recorded his first career save.
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Red Sox righthander Brayan Bello (5⅓ innings, three runs) and Dodgers righthander Emmet Sheehan (five innings, two runs) took turns pitching OK.
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Bello's outing was the first time since May 28 that he failed to complete six innings in a start. He had gone eight in a row meeting that minimum. On the season, he owns a 3.32 ERA.
'It feels like the bad one is six innings, three runs,' Cora said before the game. 'That's the mark of a good pitcher.'
Also present throughout his strong run: Wong. Friday marked Bello's 10th consecutive start with the backup as his batterymate.
'I just like it,' Cora said, noting that they work well together and cracking a smile to add: 'One day Carlos [Narváez] was very emotional with Bello. I was like, we need to split up the Latino guys.'
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For Sheehan, it was a homecoming of sorts. The Darien, Conn., native played at Boston College. The Dodgers drafted him in the eighth round in 2021, and this was his first time pitching at Fenway Park as a major leaguer.
Los Angeles struck first, scoring a run in the second frame when Andy Pages (double) came in on Tommy Edman's two-out single looped to left field.
Bello grinded through a 40-pitch third inning but managed to limit the damage to two more runs. A couple of soft singles — plus a hard one from Will Smith — loaded the bases with one out. Bello walked Hernández to force in a run. Pages' sacrifice fly brought in another.
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The Dodgers bailed out Bello with a double steal attempt. Hernández reached second, but shortstop Trevor Story threw out Freddie Freeman at the plate.
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The Sox battled back with two runs in the bottom of the third, but it could have been more. Connor Wong opened the rally with a double off the Green Monster — his first extra-base hit of the season. Duran singled, then scored on Alex Bregman's Monster-scraping double.
Sheehan rebounded to retire the next nine Sox to finish his outing.
Tim Healey can be reached at