LOS ANGELES _ The bell tolled for the 2018 Dodgers at 8:17 p.m. on Sunday, as Manny Machado made the final, futile swing of the season in Game 5 of the World Series, a 5-1 defeat by the Boston Red Sox that lacked the drama and turmoil of the previous night. The anti-climax still stung. Despite looking feeble for the majority of the Fall Classic, the team finished three victories shy of the championship, which has eluded Los Angeles since 1988.
The drought reached its 30th year in dispiriting fashion. The Dodgers spent a summer with their flaws hiding in plain sight. The group overcame them to collective their second consecutive National League pennant. Then, across 54 innings with the Red Sox, the team saw itself torn apart from within and without. They made mistakes and paid for them. They failed to execute, and saw their opponents romp inside their own ballpark, which teemed with Red Sox fans by Sunday's conclusion.
The evening felt like an eerie companion to Game 7 of last year's World Series. The opponent launched a first-inning salvo. The offense squandered an early opportunity. The crowd sat on its hands, desperate for material to cheer about. The Dodgers offered little. They were unable to send the series back to Boston.
The defeat ushered in a winter of uncertainty. Manager Dave Roberts does not have a guaranteed contract for 2019. He exposed himself to criticism after questionable decisions in this series, including an over-reliance on fading reliever Ryan Madson. Clayton Kershaw can depart in free agency. He took two losses in these five games.
Kershaw surrendered three home runs across seven innings. He was charged with four runs. The ballpark hushed after he served up a first-inning blast. The atmosphere mutated from there. Called into relief in the eighth, Pedro Baez yielded a homer of his own.
Facing Boston starter David Price, a veteran with a more checkered playoff history than Kershaw, the Dodgers capitulated. Price cruised into the eighth inning. The crowd offered a standing ovation when he departed after a leadoff walk.
The night before, the Red Sox roared to life when Roberts removed starting pitcher Rich Hill. The Dodgers whimpered against reliever Joe Kelly. Kelly wiped out Matt Kemp, Joc Pederson and Cody Bellinger to squash the last threat of the evening.
Overmatched during the first two games at Fenway Park, the Dodgers slowed Boston's momentum in the 18-inning marathon of Game 3. But the team could not recover from the bullpen's implosion in Game 4.
The bitterness from Saturday night had not faded when Game 5 began. Reporters picked apart a mid-game conversation between Hill and Roberts. Hill insisted "I never wanted to come out of the game," while confirming he did tell Roberts to "keep an eye" on him during Saturday's pivotal seventh inning. Roberts noted that when he left his dugout with one out and a runner at first base, "I didn't wave in a pitcher. I went up to the mound, and was given the baseball."
Roberts handed the baseball to his relievers, who spent the next three innings shredding a four-run lead and pushing the Dodger the brink. The manager bore the weight. The fans booed Roberts during pregame introductions on Sunday. A sizable portion of the crowd wore Red Sox gear. A pall darkened on the rest as Kershaw took the mound.
Sunday marked Kershaw's 340th start as a Dodger. It might be his last. He can opt into free agency this offseason. He has not revealed his intentions, and he insisted on Saturday he did not worry about his legacy. His postseason resume is not solely littered with failure. But those loom large in the public conscious.
Game 5 started in deflating fashion. Kershaw gave up a one-out single to outfielder Andrew Benintendi. Up came first baseman Steve Pearce, who had taken Kenley Jansen deep to tie the game on Saturday and swatted a three-run double an inning later off Kenta Maeda to bust Game 4 open. Pearce, the World Series MVP, crushed a thigh-high slider for a two-run shot.
One swing from David Freese halved the deficit in the bottom of the inning. Roberts built a lineup with Freese in the leadoff spot, guaranteeing him at least one at-bat against Price, a left-handed pitcher. Freese made the most of his initial opportunity. He redirected a first-pitch fastball from Price over the right-field fence.
Freese received a gift in his next at-bat. He lifted a drive into right field, where J.D. Martinez resided. Martinez plies his trade as a designated hitter, but the Red Sox desired his bat in the lineup. His eyesight cost Boston in the third. Martinez lost track of the ball in the dusky sky, and it splashed behind him. Freese hustled to third base for a triple.
The Dodgers needed a productive out to tie the game. They could not produce it. Justin Turner hit a hard grounder to shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who held Freese at third. Enrique Hernandez flew out to leave Freese stranded.
Kershaw found a rhythm after Pearce's homer. Heading into the sixth inning, he had retired 13 of the 14 batters he faced. When Martinez singled in the fourth, Kershaw erased him by inducing shortstop Xander Bogaerts to hit into a 6-4-3 double play.
Kershaw stumbled in the sixth. He was punished by Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts. The Dodgers had muffled Betts, the likely American League MVP, earlier in the series. He came to the plate hitting .190, with a double as his only extra-base hit. That changed when Kershaw left a slider over the middle. Kershaw hunched at the waist on the mound as Betts launched the baseball over the left-field fence.
Another homer took flight in the seventh. Martinez detonated a 90-mph fastball into center field. Enrique Hernandez scampered up the wall trying to retrieve it. The ball evaded his grasp, and the Red Sox had expanded their lead to three. It grew to four in the eighth. No more was needed. The Dodgers never answered.
