Red Sox win again, take 2-0 World Series lead to Los Angeles
These days, it is a shock to the system to see the Boston Red Sox so much as trailing, as they were briefly in the middle innings of game two of the World Series at Fenway Park. So methodical has been their march through this postseason, 26 innings and a week's worth of days had gone by since the last time they had found themselves behind on the scoreboard.
These days, it's a surprise any time they don't get a big two-out hit or fail to make an exceptional play in the outfield or make a strategic misstep. These days, it's even expected that David Price, their new Mr Automatic, will get them deep into the game and pick up the W.
These days, it seems a miracle anyone has ever beaten the 2018 Red Sox. Over two games in Boston, the Los Angeles Dodgers sure have seemed incapable of it, not that that makes them an exception. Boston's sublime season continued on Thursday [AEDT] with a 4-2 victory that puts them ahead two games to none in the best-of-seven series and leaves them two more wins away from the franchise's fourth World Series in title in 15 seasons.
The Red Sox now face as many as three games at Dodger Stadium, beginning with game three on Friday night, local time. Then again, they are 5-0 on the road this postseason, so they probably aren't quite quaking at the prospect. After a 108-win regular season, they are 9-2 overall this postseason, having outscored opponents by a combined 68-41.
These days, it's jarring to see a smart team such as the Dodgers allow their starting pitcher to face the top of the potent Red Sox lineup for a third time - didn't they scout the American League championship series? The Dodgers did so with lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu the fifth inning of game two, holding a 2-1 lead, and it backfired spectacularly - with Ryu loading the bases with two outs on a pair of singles and a walk, before they finally called on right-hander Ryan Madson, who was making his ninth appearance of the Dodgers' 13 postseason games.
These days, it's a given what would happen next, as Madson, facing the heart of Boston's patient, relentless offence, walked Steve Pearce to force in the tying run, then surrendered a go-ahead, two-run single to designated hitter J.D. Martinez, the ball falling in front of Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig, who appeared to be playing about halfway into the visitors' bullpen.
Martinez's hit lifted Boston's batting average this postseason with runners in scoring position and two outs to a staggering .425 (17 for 40). Only hours earlier, Madson had equated pitching to Martinez to being "in a pit with a rattlesnake." He might as well have been speaking about the entire Boston lineup.
These days, it's defensible to call Price a postseason stopper. Once blasted and ridiculed as incapable of delivering on baseball's biggest stage - a label that owed to his winless record in the first 11 starts of his career in the postseason - he has now twirled back-to-back gems.
Price hadn't allowed a hit until David Freese's sinking liner to right leading off the fourth, and it led to the Dodgers' first run when, three batters later, Matt Kemp came to the plate with the bases loaded and nobody out and hit a sacrifice fly to centre. Two batters after that, Puig fisted a fastball into shallow centre, plating the Dodgers' second run.
It was the first the Red Sox had found themselves trailing in a game since the fifth inning of game four of the American League championship series.
These days, it's fair to wonder whether the grand plan the Dodgers have followed all month, a platoon-based offence with wholesale midgame changes that resemble a hockey team changing lines, has met its match with the Red Sox pitching staff, against whom it appears to be too smart by half.
These days, it's acceptable for anyone with a heartbeat to sit in for Red Sox manager Alex Cora and pull the levers on Boston's late-inning bullpen moves, so automatic have they become. Joe Kelly handled the seventh. Nathan Eovaldi, a starter-reliever hybrid who has excelled at both roles this month, retired the top of the Dodgers' lineup in the eighth, then walked off as 38,644 giddy fans belted out the opening lines to Sweet Caroline.
All that was left was the final three outs from closer Craig Kimbrel, and the familiar handshake line at midfield.
Though anything can still happen, and the Dodgers will not concede, and the Red Sox will not take anything for granted, these days it's hard to ignore what this World Series looks like two games in. These days, it's hard to envision a scenario where the Red Sox lose four games in a five-game span.
Washington Post
Most Viewed in Sport
Please explain
Our weekly podcast giving you insight into the stories that drive the nation.
Listen now