The Boston Red Sox have taken a 2-0 lead in the 2018 World Series. The Series will resume Friday night in Los Angeles as the Dodgers look to claw back.
Game 1
The Sox defeated the Dodgers 8-4 in the battle of the aces between Chris Sale and Clayton Kershaw. Neither pitched that well but this was still filled with excitement. Sale only lasted 4 innings on 91 pitches. His fastball velocity dipped throughout the night with an average of 94.2 mph in the 1st inning and 91.8 mph in the 4th inning. He gave up 5 hits, runs, 2 walks, and fanned 7. Last week, Sale was in the hospital with a stomach ailment which caused him to miss a start in the ALCS. Kershaw also wasn’t sharp. He gave up 7 hits, 5 earned runs, 3 walks, and struck out 5. Kershaw was only able to get to 79 pitches before being pulled for Brian Madson.
Andrew Benintendi was on fire racking up 4 hits on the night. But the big knock came off the bat of Oscar Nuñez. Alex Cora pinch hit Nuñez to go up against Alex Wood. Nuñez crushed it over the green monster for a 3-run home run to put this one out of reach. Dave Roberts made a questionable decision to remove Pedro Báez after getting two easy outs. The Red Sox have been so deadly with RISP and 2 outs batting .415 with a .564. on-base percentage. This is beyond clutch. This is the reason the Red Sox have steamrolled through the playoffs. Their pitching has been good no question but their offense is just so relentless.
Not to mention Mookie Betts won every person in America a free taco courtesy of Taco Bell’s “Steal a base, Steal a taco” campaign.
Game 2
The Red Sox struck first again which made them 9-0 when scoring first in the 2018 post-season after beating the Dodgers 4-2 in Game 2. Ian Kinsler drove in Xander Bogaerts to put the Red Sox out in front to a 1-0 lead. The Dodgers took the lead in the 4th with a sac fly from Matt Kemp to tie it and a single from Yasiel Puig to make it 2-1. David Price turned in another impressive outing quieting the haters for now about his post-season struggles. He went 6 innings pitched with 3 hits, 2 runs, 3 walks, and striking out 5. Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched well until he loaded the bases in the 5th which sent him into the clubhouse. Ryan Madsen walked Steve Pearce home to tie it up 2-2 and then gave up a 2-run RBI single to J.D. Martinez to make it 4-2. Nathan Eovaldi and Craig Kimbrel shut the door to put the Red Sox up in the series 2-0.
Coming Up
This may be stating the obvious but the Dodgers need to win Game 3 if they are going to have a chance of coming back in this series. Rick Porcello with square up against Walker Beuhler in what should be another action packed battle.