Steve Webb
BOSTON, MA — It was quite the spectacle, the return of the prodigal. The franchise player abruptly traded away makes his triumphant re-entry into the arena that saw his greatest triumph. And truth be told, Mookie Betts did just fine in his return to Boston. In fact, he started the ball rolling for the visiting Dodgers with a ringing double off the Green Monster and scored a couple of runs.
But it was Mookie’s partner in crime, his fellow exile, Freddie Freeman who had the lion’s share of the big knocks in this one. Freddie went 4-for-5, drove in a run, and scored three times as the Dodgers came from behind on Friday night to beat the Boston Red Sox by a score of 7-4 .
You can’t blame Mookie and the Dodgers if they were a little groggy at the start of this one. After all, they played 16 innings of baseball on Thursday and then had to fly to Boston. So to be honest, in the early going they looked a little listless against the Sox starter Kutter Crawford (how’s that for a baseball name?).
Mookie got a nice ovation from the Boston faithful before his first at-bat, but then promptly fouled out to first base. In his second at-bat, he got caught looking at a strike on the black and got rung up. The rest of the team wasn’t faring any better. Crawford was getting pop-ups and strikeouts and that was about it.
Meanwhile, Lance Lynn looked like he might have forgotten to pack the Dodger magic when he left LA earlier this week. His first pitch was obliterated for a leadoff homer from old buddy Alex Verdugo (which must have felt great), and Trevor Story took him deep for a two-run shot in the second. But the thing about Lynn is he just keeps coming at you. Yes, he gave up the two long balls and a bunch of hard contact beside that as well, but the guy survived for five more innings. It was only when the first two Red Sox reached in the seventh that his night was over. All in all, a great start, especially considering the shaky way it started. The final line for Lynn: 6+ IP, 10 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.
Lynn’s performance kept the Boys in Blue in the game, and sure enough, they finally got that vaunted offense in gear. And guess who started the comeback rally? Natch. Mr. Markus Lynn Betts. He led off the sixth inning with that aforementioned double off the Monster, and suddenly Kutter’s spell had been broken. Freddie Freeman followed up Betts’ hit with a knock of his own that sent Mookie to 3rd and Kutter to the showers.
Now, the Angelinos were cooking with gas. Nick Pivetta replaced Crawford on the mound and he was greeted rather rudely by a Will Smith double that plated Betts for the Dodgers’ first run. Max Muncy hit an RBI ground out to the right side of the infield to make it a 3-2 game. Then, after David Peralta made the second out of the inning without advancing any runners, Kiké Hernandez came back to give Chaim Bloom a headache. He ripped an RBI single to score Smith from third, and suddenly we had ourselves a brand new ballgame.
Smelling blood in the water, the Dodgers got back to work in the top of the seventh. Michael Busch and Mookie Betts sandwiched a Miguel Rojas strikeout with a couple of walks to give the Dodgers runners at first and second for Freddie Freeman. Fab Five Freddie did not disappoint. He ripped his 48th double of the year into the gap, and the Dodgers were up 4-3. They would tack on a couple more runs on a Max Muncy double down the line, and suddenly LA had themselves a three-run lead.
The Sox scored one more on a fielding hiccup in the seventh, but reliever Brusdar Graterol would allow no more. And in the 8th, the Red Sox managed to run themselves out of an inning when catcher Connor Wong got himself caught in a pickle between second and third on a single to right. So, instead of having the bases loaded with Rafael Devers coming to the plate, it was inning over.
The Dodgers tacked on some insurance in the 9th on a David Peralta sac fly, and then in the bottom of the frame, Evan Phillips pitched a scoreless inning to give the Dodgers their third straight win on the road trip. Good times indeed.
The series picks up on Saturday with a battle of lefties, as Julio Urias toes the rubber against veteran James Paxton. Be interesting to watch Julio in this one. Still not quite sold on his full return to form. We shall see on Saturday. In the meantime, the Dodgers should get some well deserved sleep.
