Click here for Mike Coppinger’s report from Dodger Stadium:
Final thoughts
Dave Roberts handed this game to the Boston Red Sox. Period. @HunterFelt
— David Lengel (@LengelDavid) October 28, 2018
I think this doesn’t give quite enough credit to the Red Sox, who are just better team here, but certainly Roberts has made his share of confounding moments. Cora too probably made an error in keeping Rodriguez in the game too long, but obviously winning overtakes that. He’ll have a change at redemption if he can win tomorrow’s game and force the Red Sox to head back to Boston, but that might be a tall order.
We’ll be covering it right here at the Guardian, hope you’ll join us. Until then, be sure to check out tonight’s game report. Thanks for following along tonight, especially those who contributed. Ciao!
So, the Red Sox will have their ace, Chis Sale, on the mound in Game 5 tomorrow night with a chance to clinch their 4th World Series of the millennium. Meanwhile, the Dodgers will be fighting for their lives.
Red Sox win Game 4
Red Sox 9-6 Dodgers, FINAL
Tuner is at second. Bellinger is at the plate and he’s laying off nearly everything that Kimbrel is offering him. He gets ahead 3-1, but is caught looking at a strike. Dodgers down to their final strike. Bellinger fouls one off. On the next pitch he hits a long harmless fly to Benintendi! The Red Sox take a 3-1 lead in the World Series.
Red Sox 9-6 Dodgers, bottom 9th
Machado grounds out to Devers who makes a masterful play to get him out. Just one more to go. Things are less interesting now.
Red Sox 9-6 Dodgers, bottom 9th
Kimbrel gets Muncy to ground out but allows a single to Turner. This is getting too interesting for Boston.
HOME RUN (Hernadnez) Red Sox 9-6 Dodgers
Red Sox 9-6 Dodgers, bottom 9th
Life imitates liveblogging as Craig Kimbrel runs into a hiccup in the bottom of the ninth the very second my browser crashes, walking Dozier and giving up a home run to Hernandez.
Run! (Red Sox) Red Sox 9-4 Dodgers
Red Sox 9-4 Dodgers, Top 9th
And that backfired. Bogaerts drives in Pearce. Yeah, this one is done. Nunez flies out to end the inning.
Updated
Red Sox 8-4 Dodgers, Top 9th
The Dodgers intentionally walk Martinez and decide to face Bogaerts.
Runs! (Red Sox) Red Sox 8-4 Dodgers
Red Sox 8-4 Dodgers, Top 9th
And Pearce hits a bases-clearing double! They don’t want to even risk extra innings!
Updated
Red Sox 5-4 Dodgers, Top 9th
Dave Roberts pulls off some position shenanigans here. Hernandez goes to left and Brian Dozier is at second.
Kenta Maeda will be facing Steve Pearce.
Red Sox 5-4 Dodgers, Top 9th
Looks like they’re not going to pitch to Mookie, they intentionally walk him. Alex Wood comes into the game to face Benintendi with two on and two out instead. Wood gets ahead of him 0-2. Benintendi fouls the next one off and then hits what looks to be a ground out but he just manages to beat Turner’s throw. He’s safe. The bases are loaded with two out.
Red Sox 5-4 Dodgers, Top 9th
Blake Swihart is up, he grounds out to second, but they can’t double up Devers who makes it to second with Mookie Betts up next.
RUN! (Red Sox) Red Sox 5-4 Dodgers,
Red Sox 5-4 Dodgers, Top 9th
Devers is in the catcher’s spot for the ultra-light hitting Leon. Devers is an all-or-nothing kind of hitter capable of breaking open games. The Dodgers might not give him anything here. Which they do. Devers takes the first two pitches outside.
Then they give him something to hit and he does, a single that scores Holt at second! THE RED SOX HAVE THEIR FIRST LEAD!
Red Sox 4-4 Dodgers, Top 9th
Floro gets ahead of Brock Holt, 1-2. He hits out fair and legs it out for a double, sliding into second safely. And here’s Rafael Devers to hit.
Red Sox 4-4 Dodgers, Top 9th
We have a new battery. Randal Floro is pitching, Grandal is catching. Floro gets Nunez to foul out on the very first pitch. Floro will take that.
Big mood.
@HunterFelt One request. Can we not go 18 innings tonight? asking for a friend
— Rory Murphy (@Rory_Tealeaf) October 28, 2018
Red Sox 4-4 Dodgers, Bottom 8th
Yasmani Grandal is hitting now in Barnes’s place. Kelly’s staying the game. Grandal shows patience, sees three straight pitches to get ahead in the count 2-1. Kelly freezes him with a pretty looking strike and he foul-tips the next pitch into the catcher’s mitt. Kelly puts up two scoreless and we’re on to the ninth.
Red Sox 4-4 Dodgers, Bottom 8th
Chris Taylor’s up and he takes two straight balls. He knocks a single and a hustling Puig manages to scoot his way over to third base, taking everybody by surprise. There’s runners on the corners now, still two out.
Red Sox 4-4 Dodgers, Bottom 8th
Puig hits a slow grounder that Bogaerts manages to convert into a force play that erases Machado but they can’t double up Puig. Two outs, one on.
Red Sox 4-4 Dodgers, Bottom 8th
Kelly falls behind Bellinger 2-1 before he fouls off a pitch. On 2-2 he whiffs on a slider. And here comes that man again. Yusiel Puig is up with one out and one on. Big at-bat here.
Red Sox 4-4 Dodgers, Bottom 8th
Joe Kelly is now in to keep this game tied. Machado immediately greets him with a single. it looks like David Price is in the bullpen again. Interesting.
Red Sox 4-4 Dodgers, Top 8th
Deja-vu all over again. Jensen gets Martinez to strike out. Bogaerts flies out, but the damage is done. We have a tied game.
Oh man this is gonna go extras too isn’t it?
Roger Kirkby:
This ain’t over, I can’t see Janson lasting two innings.
Home Run (Pearce) Red Sox 4-4 Dodgers
Red Sox 4-4 Dodgers, Top 8th
Yeah that didn’t work out. Pearce hits a long one off of Jansen and we have a tied game.
Red Sox 3-4 Dodgers, Top 8th
Kenley Jansen is out for a six out save? Can’t imagine that considering how many pitches he threw last night. Let’s see. He’s facing Benintendi, who promptly grounds out. Well, that’s a quick start.
Updated
Red Sox 3-4 Dodgers, Bottom 7th
Turner flies out. Have to say that went somewhat better for Kelly than Madson. To the eighth!
Red Sox 3-4 Dodgers, Bottom 7th
Muncy hits a single off of Kelly after falling behind, making way to Turner.
Red Sox 3-4 Dodgers, Bottom 7th
Hernandez lines out. That’s two down.
Red Sox 3-4 Dodgers, Bottom 7th
Oh and Sandy Leon is now catching in place of Vazquez, in case you’re wondering.
Kelly strikes out Pederson, who was hitting in the pitcher’s spot. Feels like Madson could have done that.
Red Sox 3-4 Dodgers, Bottom 7th
This is the Relievers Distrusted The Most By Their Fans inning apparently, because here’s Joe Kelly to face Joc Pederson to start the bottom of the 7th.
Madson has allowed all seven inherited runners he’s had on base this postseason score.
Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Fool me three times? Got nothing. A lefty hit a pinch hit home run, off a righty. I don’t need to play lefty righty, but didn’t LA just have a lefty on the mound who had allowed ONE HIT? Just throw it all away...@HunterFelt
— David Lengel (@LengelDavid) October 28, 2018
Red Sox 3-4 Dodgers, Top 7th
Betts lines out to end the inning. But it’s gonna be a nail-biter on both sides here for the foreseeable future.
3 Run Home Run. (Moreland). Red Sox 3-4 Dodgers
Red Sox 3-4 Dodgers, Top 7th
Two out and a pinch-hitting Mitch Moreland hits a LONG LONG LONG one out. And the Red Sox have cut the lead to 3. Ryan Madson just did what every Dodgers fan was convinced he would do.
Red Sox 0-4 Dodgers, top 7th
Madson, who has already let 5 inherited runners score, is here to face a pinch-hitting Jackie Bradley Jr. Bradley almost gets himself out, swinging at the first pitch and popping it up. It goes foul and it’s just not catchable. He takes two balls and then hits a pop up that Hernandez catches.
Red Sox 0-4 Dodgers, top 7th
And that will be the only man for Alexander. Is that… Is that Ryan Madson coming in?
Dave Roberts has a four-run lead, so he knows he has a lot of work to do to blow this game. His first pitching move shows he’s taking this opportunity seriously. @HunterFelt
— David Lengel (@LengelDavid) October 28, 2018
Red Sox 0-4 Dodgers, top 7th
Scott Alexander in to face Brock Holt, runner on first and out. Alexander walks his first man on four pitches.
@HunterFelt Evening, British baseball enjoyer here. Would I be right in thinking the game has gone a bit T20? All about the home runs, on base percentage is for losers?
— Tombo (@Tombo_h) October 28, 2018
You can tell I’m American because I looked at this and first thought “Terminator” rather than “cricket.”
An old school take here from Mr. Lengel:
I tell you what. You want to do all that new age sh*t with pitching starters who just pitched and will pitch again soon. You wana manage one game at a time, you better fu$g win those games. There’s a reason starters have pitched every four/five days for 100 years. @HunterFelt
— David Lengel (@LengelDavid) October 28, 2018
Red Sox 0-4 Dodgers, top 7th
Hill strikes out Nunez and that will do it for him. Dave Roberts comes to take him out and he gets a rousing standing ovation, which is very well deserved. What a start from a pitcher who was almost out of baseball a few years ago.
Red Sox 0-4 Dodgers, top 7th
Hill’s spot in the order didn’t come up so he’s back out to face Bogaerts. Red Sox offense has to do something, anything here to claw back in this one. He works a full count and then takes a walk. It’s a start.
Red Sox 0-4 Dodgers, bottom 6th
Barnes strikes out, but the damage is done. It’s hard to blame E-Rod too much here, despite giving up the Puig homer, he should have been out of the inning one way or another.
Red Sox 0-4 Dodgers, bottom 6th
And here’s “Six Nation Army” chants from Dodgers fans. Why hasn’t this been outlawed yet? Barnes is at the plate here.
@HunterFelt I hate to criticise Cora after this year - but this is all on him. Rodriguez had a great start and cora's been so aggressive normally with bullpen. Left him in too long and paid price
— Rory Murphy (@Rory_Tealeaf) October 28, 2018
I think even he would admit it.
Red Sox 0-4 Dodgers, bottom 6th
And Barnes falls behind 3-0 to Taylor and eventually walks him. Man, things can change in a hurry in baseball, can’t they?
Red Sox 0-4 Dodgers, bottom 6th
Matt Barnes is in the game now, a batter too late. That’s one of the few times in this postseason manager Alex Cora has made a crucial mistake. Puig is having a hell of a postseason.
3 Run Home Run! (Puig) Red Sox 0-4 Dodgers
Red Sox 0-4 Dodgers, bottom 6th
Rodriguez falls behind Puig 3-1, it’s a bit odd that he’s still in the game to be honest.
And as soon as I hit that, Puig hits a home run. Yup. That’s probably the ballgame.
Run (Dodgers)! Red Sox 0-1 Dodgers, bottom 6th
Red Sox 0-1 Dodgers, bottom 6th
Cody Bellinger is up. He hits into what looks like a double play ball but after Pearce goes to home to get Hernandez out at home, his throw hits the runner. Turner scores, Machado gets to third on the error. Just a total mess.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 6th
Turner fouls off the first pitch. 0-1. Bullpen action for the Red Sox now, Rodriguez might be on a short leash. Rodriguez misses with a pitch, dangerously close to hitting Turner. 1-1. He hits a double and Turner is hustling. He makes it to third, so it’s runners at second and third and one out. Needless to say, this is the best scoring opportunity for either team so far. The Red Sox decide to intentionally walk Machado.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 6th
There’s a runner on for this morning’s hero Muncy, but he swings and misses on two straight pitches. 0-2. Rodriguez hits the inside corner on the next pitch and he’s down. Turner up now.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 6th
Rodriguez starts the inning by plunking Freese. Gonna say that this was not intentional. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts replaces him with Kiki Hernandez.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 6th
Martinez takes a ball and then swings and completely misses at the second pitch. On pitch three, he grounds out at three. This is impressive.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 6th
Pearce up next. He takes a strike and a ball. 1-1 count. He then hits one right to Taylor. Hill is cruising.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 6th
Hill’s still out there, as one would expect after his plate appearance. He’s facing Benintendi who hits a ground ball that Hill stabs at and throws to first just in time for the out.
Last night's #WorldSeries Game 3 ended after breakfast, to the dismay of my kids who sneaked downstairs early to play on the Xbox. With UK clocks going back tonight, Game 4 could be the fastest ever. @HunterFelt
— Darren Lewis (@dazlewis) October 28, 2018
And now it’s officially jinxed.
In a series featuring a ridiculous number of Cy Young winners, Rich Hill/Eduardo Rodriguez ends up being the pitcher’s duel. Who knew?
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 5th
Barnes grounds out and it looks like Hill is batting for himself. At this point, considering how he’s pitching, there’s no reason to pull him this early. I’m sure that Rodriguez isn’t complaining any. Hill attempts to bunt and he thinks he’s succeeded so he runs to first not realizing it went foul. It ends up just being a strike.
Instead he grounds out to third, just like Barnes and we’re scoreless through five.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 5th
Rodriguez is out for the fifth, this seems to be where his starts go to die. It’s crucial for the Dodgers to make him sweat here. Chris Tucker has gotten the memo, he takes the first three pitches, a strike and then two balls. Taylor swings away at the next pitch and then looks at strike number three. That’ll work.
When Rich Hill throws a pitch, he has a face of someone who has been doing shots of vinegar. @HunterFelt
— David Lengel (@LengelDavid) October 28, 2018
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 5th
I’m gonna guess E-Rod’s gonna be bunting here. Just call it a hunch.
Or not, he shows to bunt but ends up striking out instead. And Mookie hits a longball that looks like it could be something, but proves to be nothing. That will do it for this inning. Their first real scoring opportunity of the game and it’s something of a squander.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 5th
Christian Vazquez once again ALMOST hits one out yet again. The last flyball didn’t have the distance and this one just goes foul. He DOES however get the first Red Sox hit of the game, a solid single. A start.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 5th
I had this as a slugfest. This, uh, has not been that. Holt, proving my point, grounds out to second.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 4th
Bellinger is up next, he takes a strike and a ball, then fouls one off of his foot. Looks pretty painful but he stays in. 1-2 is the count, Turner is still on first. He takes a real close pitch that evens up the count. 2-2 before swinging and missing at a breaking ball. Two down.
And Puig pops up on the first pitch. Inning over.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 4th
Manny Machado works a full count and Dodgers Stadium gets loud. Turner keeps moving like he’s about to go off and steal second at any time. Finally, Rodriguez gets Machado to strike out. Turner wisely remains at first.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 4th
Justin Turner hits a leadoff single to start the inning. Oh, right, hitting. I remember that vaguely.
Here’s a question for @HunterFelt, being a Bostonite and all. Why are the #RedSox wearing spring training uniforms in the #2018WorldSeries?
— David Lengel (@LengelDavid) October 28, 2018
I don’t know what you’re talking about, when I hear Red Sox I know I always immediately think “blue.”
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 4th
And the bruised and battered Nunez swings and misses and that’s five strikeouts for Hill. Some big Dick Mountain energy right now.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 4th
Hill gets two strikes on Bogaerts who grounds out. Hitters aren’t exactly adjusting to his pitch selection here.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 4th
Rich Hill is out, he hasn’t allowed a hit. Not that he’s going to even get the opportunity to throw a no-hitter here given the circumstances. He’s facing JD Martinez, who strikes out. That’s Hill fourth strikeout.
I gotta tell you, I am loving this couch right now. @HunterFelt
— David Lengel (@LengelDavid) October 28, 2018
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 3rd
Muncy flies out, and that’s three full.
Roger Kirkby:
They keep a lot of stats in baseball, but do they have one for which team wins the next one after a 15 plus inning game? The winner or the loser? Google might not be your friend on that one.
Good question. I’m sure someone with too much time on his hands has done the research.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 3rd
Freese flies out before I can think of a terrible “Batman and Robin”-inspired pun on his name.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 3rd
Rich Hill pops up and slips a little on his way to first base. He seems fine though.
Chris O’Brien:
For people that don’t know, Dennis Eckersley (known by everyone in baseball as Eck) was not only one of the best closers of all time, but is also a well known baseball broadcaster. He does lots of national games, but ever since the Red Sox main broadcaster and Red Sox legend Jerry Remy (aka the Remdawg) was diagnosed for the fourth time with cancer, Eck has stepped in and become a bit of a celebrity broadcaster for the Sox this year.
He’s known for a wide variety of Eck-isms (salad, pair of shoes, branch work) and for his memorable Mookie Betts grand slam call earlier in the year.
I can confirm he’s extremely well liked in the New England area even if he’s sometimes a little bit cheesy.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 3rd
Benintendi pops up and Pearce flies out and the HBP ends up being harmless.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 3rd
Betts hits a ground ball but Rodriguez isn’t used to running on the base paths and he gets thrown out at second. He definitely could have been safe if he had ran a bit harder. Betts is at first, at least.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 3rd
Rich Hill nails Rodriguez with a pitch. He’s clearly not used to this, playing in the Land of the Designated Hitter, and he looks like he’s in some pain. Still, it’s one way for a starter to get on base I guess.
Hopefully Game 4 isn’t too much like Game 3 because...
Things that take less time than the 7-hour, 20-minute World Series Game 3:
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 27, 2018
- Watching the original Star Wars trilogy (6:16)
- Walking a marathon at 3.6 mph (7:17)
- Flying from LA to Boston (5:26)
- The entire 1939 World Series (7:05, h/t @StatsBySTATS)
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 2nd
Catcher Austin Barnes looks at strike three and that’s E-Rod’s second K. So far, at least offensively, this is looking a lot like yesterday’s game.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 2nd
Chris Taylor is up and he get the first hit of the inning, a solid single that breaks a 0-9 slump.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 2nd
Yusiel Puig flies out and Cody Bellinger grounds out. That’s good, quick work to start the inning for Rodriguez.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 2nd
Christian Vazquez ALMOST hits one out but it lands harmlessly into the glove of Chris Taylor. We go to the bottom of the 2nd.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 2nd
Brock Holt takes a walk. No hits yet here.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 2nd
Xander Bogaerts pops up to first to start the second. Here comes the one-man medical unit Eduardo Nunez, who strikes out.
Email from Chris O’Brien:
The pen isn’t really that depleted, thanks to Eovaldi.
Most of them pitched an inning of less.
They’re grand
True, it could be a lot worse.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 1st
The infamous Manny Machado is up now, hopefully this time he won’t be turning any doubles into singles like yesterday. Instead he just flies out to JD Martinez. And that does it for the first. just 17 more to go. (Joking. I hope.)
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 1st
And now it’s the Gritty-esque Justin Turner whose doing his job and making Rodriguez throw a whole bunch of pitches, eventually walking after working a full count.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 1st
Max Muncy is up now for the Dodgers. As you may imagine he gets a tremendous ovation from the fans here. He works a full count and the crowd gets even louder. He grounds out the first. No magic this time around.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, bottom 1st
Eduardo Rodriguez is up, in for Eovaldi, who pitched so memorably in “relief” last night (although it’s extremely likely that Rodriguez will threw far fewer pitches in his start than he did in his). Rodriguez strikes out Freese to start things off here in the bottom of the first.
Good start for Rich Hill. It should be noted that the Dodgers aren’t a fan of having him face lineups more than twice, so the less hitters he has to face per inning, the better.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 1st
Instead Rich Hill gets Martinez to swing and miss. That’s two strikeouts in the inning for Hill and we go to the bottom of the 1st.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 1st
Steve Pearce takes a walk, giving J.D. Martinez a chance to extend the Red Sox’s success in two-out situations.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 1st
Adam Benintendi flies out. That’s two down for Rich Hill, or Dick Mountain, as he likes to be known. No really that’s his nickname.
You might have missed it if you went to sleep last night, and Joe Buck will *definitely* not tell you on air:
— Nathan Hubbard (@NathanCHubbard) October 28, 2018
The guy who hit the game winning home run revealed in the postgame interview that the Dodgers’ nickname for tonight’s starting pitcher Rich Hill is “Dick Mountain”.
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 1st
And Mookie Betts strikes out. The probable AL MVP has been in a slump here in the World Series.
First pitch
Red Sox 0-0 Dodgers, top 1st
Rich Hill enters the game and throws the first pitch to Mookie Betts and it’s high. 1-0. We have baseball!
Email from Adam Fletcher
My first world series - 1986, on the American Forces Network radio service that you could pick up on Medium Wave, just near BBC Radio Wales (god bless Greenham Common). I set the alarm for 12.30am and was woken by ‘take me out to the ballgame’. Particular memories - the ‘Go Mets parachuter in Game 6, and then Buckner, obviously. By the time of the Twins Cardinals match up the following year I’d moved away to University and could barely get a signal.
If you’re gonna have a first World Series there’s worse ones to have than 1986 (unless you are a Boston fan).
Email from Roger Kirby, a veteran of these liveblogs:
Hi Hunter, so on 5hrs sleep here we go again. I wonder how many folks in L.A. used up their earthquake emergency rations during last nights game?Prediction? A slugfest by either one or both teams tonight. The bats have been cold for too long. Don’t count the Sox out of this, they have long ball guys too. The result? Anyone’s guess after last night.
It’s hard to imagine that the Red Sox will ever go as cold at the plate as they did last night.
And we’re getting close to game time. Los Angeles looks a lot nicer than Boston does right now.
Meanwhile, Kirk Gibson was here not to throw out the Opening Pitch but reenact his legendary home run:
Eck greets Kirk Gibson before throwing the ceremonial first pitch to him before Game 4. pic.twitter.com/WLNnNaqhpB
— Michael Silverman (@MikeSilvermanBB) October 28, 2018
Is there not even a tiny piece of you that wants to smash @LengelDavid ‘s record for longest #WorldSeries game blog?
— Exeter Spitfires (@ExeterSpitfires) October 27, 2018
I wouldn’t mind setting a new record for shortest. It’s not gonna happen with Rodriguez pitching though.
Predictions
It’s prediction time! I’m going with the Dodgers tonight for reasons that are mostly obvious. They’re the most depleted team and even in normal circumstances, Eduardo Rodriguez is an inefficient (although often effective) pitcher. He struggles to get through five innings, which means Cora could have to lean on his exhausted bullpen.
Your thoughts? Send them to @HunterFelt or tweet them hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com.
After @LengelDavid pulled double-duty with last night’s epic ⚾️ #WorldSeries Game 3 between @RedSox and @Dodgers, @HunterFelt is back in the Guardian #Baseball blog hot seat for Game 4.
— Exeter Spitfires (@ExeterSpitfires) October 27, 2018
These are the social media torchbearers for @mlblondonseries ⚾️🇬🇧 2019. Follow them. https://t.co/uOmtAltcO0
Before I forget, I have to give a shout out to David Lengel for covering the entirety of the 7+ hour baseball epic without showing any signs of fatigue. Eovaldi-esque. I feel a tad bit guilty it was the only game I wasn’t scheduled to attend or blog. (Note: this may have just jinxed it. This one’s going ten hours, isn’t it?)
Los Angeles Dodgers lineup
David Freese batting leadoff. Let’s get weird.
1. David Freese,, 1B
2. Max Muncy, 2B
3. Justin Turner, 3B
4. Manny Machado, SS
5. Cody Bellinger, CF
6. Yasiel Puig, RF
7. Chris Taylor, LF
8. Austin Barnes, C
9. Rich Hill, P
Red Sox lineup
Holt is starting over Kinsler, which probably should make Sox fans happy.
1. Mookie Betts, CF
2. Andrew Benintendi, LF
3. Steve Pearce, 1B
4. J.D. Martinez, RF
5. Xander Bogaerts, SS
6. Eduardo Nunez, 3B
7. Brock Holt, 2B
8. Christian Vazquez, C
9. Eduardo Rodriguez, P
The Red Sox had a chance to win Game 3 in extra innings had Ian Kinsler hadn’t made this play. There can’t be anyone on the planet who hopes that Boston goes on to win the whole thing more than Kinsler. Nobody wants to the goat. I will note that this game would have been much different had the first four batters in the Boston lineup went 0-for-70 billion at the plane.
Preamble
If they had to do all over again, the Boston Red Sox probably wouldn’t have bothered to tie things up late in last night’s/this morning’s Game 3. They could have lost the game with the knowledge that Los Angeles Dodgers starter Walker Buehler had overpowered them his brilliant but now barely-remembered pitching performance. Instead, Jackie Bradley Jr tied the game up 1-1 in the eighth and the teams entered extra innings in what ended up being the longest game in World Series history.
Long story short, Max Muncy’s walk-off home run sealed the 3-2 Dodgers win, preventing the team from falling into a a 0-3 hole. Boston’s lead in the series has been cut to 2-1 and this series has officially begun.
While both team’s bullpens were depleted in Game 3, it feels that Boston has been hit harder. They couldn’t even find a starter who didn’t pitch last night. Today’s starter in Eduardo Rodriguez, who came into Game 3 to strike out Joc Pederson. The Dodgers, meanwhile, are going with former Sox hurler Rich Hill.
All of this has been bad for the Red Sox, but good for baseball. If the Dodgers had lost, the World Series would have been effectively over. It’s impossible to imagine that they would be able to win four straight against this Red Sox team, especially with not two games at Fenway Park. Now, the Dodgers could tie with a win tonight and we’re guaranteed that this is going at least five games.
So, tonight we’ll see if the Red Sox can shake off the heartbreaking loss or if the Dodgers can make this a six game series. If you want to contribute to this liveblog you can email hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com or tweet @HunterFelt. Hopefully this time around we’ll have a final before the seven hour mark. It’s Game 4 of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium. The game starts a bit past 8pm EST, but we will return with lineups and things of that nature beforehand.
Hunter will be here shortly, in the meantime here’s how an epic Game 3 unfolded:
Max Muncy nearly ended this mind-bending game in the 15th inning, but a ball that looked destined to end up as a home run hooked just around the right foul pole, and a collective groan from the home fans in Dodger Stadium followed. When the Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman stepped up to the plate three innings later, he made sure it would be the final at bat of the game, if not the day.
A game that began at 5.10pm on Friday ended at 12.30am on Saturday when Muncy launched a Nathan Eovaldi 90mph fastball into the left-field bleachers. Muncy rounded third, and the Dodgers dugout emptied in delirious euphoria to celebrate the 3-2 victory. Finally, at long last, they were headed to bed, and more importantly, won’t face elimination against the Boston Red Sox when the teams play again later in the day.
Click here for the full report:
