Hi all. Here’s how I see baseball on this Sunday, Oct. 28. There was no reason to pull Rich Hill off the hill when his manager did it. Seeing Hill gone, the Red Sox pounded the exhausted Dodgers’ bull pen and got 5 runs in the 9th for a 9–6 win. This isn’t Roberts’ first blunder in this series or the one last year.
The game couldn’t have started better for the home team. The Dodgers had a 4–0 lead and Hill was cruising. However, with one out in the 7th his boss came with the hook. Doubtless the Red Sox cheered at the sight of relievers they have handled with ease during the series. Hill had struck out 7 men and the only run on His record came across when Bogaerts scored. Mitch Moreland, hardly a household name hit a 3-run home run to get Boston back into the game. He hit it off Ryan Madson who had performed poorly twice in Boston. Steve Pearce, who had been languishing with the Blue Jays drove home 4 runs. The first was a game-tying home run in the 8th off Kenley Jansen. In all of the 114 World Series that have been played, only one other man has given up game-tying home runs two games in a row. That pitcher was Byung-Hyun Kim of the D-backs in 2001, a series they were lucky enough to win despite Kim’s home run balls. The Red Sox blew it open with 5 in the 9th. After Brock Holt doubled, pinch-hitter Rafael Devers singled him home. Then Pearce struck again, piercing the Dodgers’ hearts. With the bases full and facing Kenta Maeda, Pearce doubled in all 3 runs. Bogaerts then singled home Pearce. Enrique Hernandez hit a two-run shot off Craig Kimbrel but it was far too little and far too late. The one hope is that after a 28-pitch outing in game 4, Kimbrel may have to sit out game 5 if things get tight. The Dodgers’ only chance for a comeback is a game 5 where Clayton Kershaw pitches like the multiple Cy Young winner or contender he used to be. Boston has chosen David Price over Chris Sale. The Kershaw-Price duel will be the fourth time in this series two lefties have gone mano a mano. The record is 5 times in a World Series. That was the 1973 Fall Classic when the Mets’ John Matlac and Jerry Koosman were out there against lefties Ken Holtzman and Vida Blue for Oakland. That series took 7 games to complete and starters made 3 starts in a 7-game series in that forgotten era. Even if this one goes 7, I don’t see a matchup of another pair of lefties to equal the 1973 lefty matchups.