If it seems like the Red Sox have been playing from behind in every game since the All-Star break, you aren’t imagining things.
Through their first six games of the second half entering the weekend the Red Sox allowed the opposing team to score first five times while falling behind later in the one game they took an early lead. That trend continued on Friday, with the Red Sox once again falling in an early hole that they couldn’t climb out of.
The Red Sox were beaten 5-2 by the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, who broke the ice early and never looked back. The Dodgers led 3-2 for most of the game until Teoscar Hernandez delivered the dagger with his two-run home run in the top of the eighth, helping hand Boston its fifth loss in the last seven games.
Things started off well enough.
The first inning has been a huge problem for the Red Sox, who came into Friday with a 6.32 ERA in that frame. Brayan Bello did his part to lower that figure by keeping the Dodgers off the board, striking out Shohei Ohtani to start the game before getting Will Smith and Freddie Freeman to fly out.
But Los Angeles broke through in the second with an RBI single by Tommy Edman and extended its lead with two more runs in the third.
The third inning devolved into a tractor pull for Bello, who allowed three straight singles, a bases-loaded walk to Teoscar Hernandez and a sacrifice fly to Andy Pages. He ultimately threw 40 pitches to get through the frame, and it would have been more had the Dodgers not run themselves out of the inning by attempting a failed backdoor steal of home.
The Red Sox offense came to life in the bottom of the third when Connor Wong led off the inning with a double off the Green Monster, his first extra-base hit in 37 games played this season. Jarren Duran drove him in with his subsequent single and then Alex Bregman followed with a sky-high RBI double off the wall to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Bello gave Boston a chance from there, bouncing back from his difficult third with a 1-2-3 fourth. Then after allowing a walk to Ohtani and a single to Will Smith to put runners at the corners with one out in the fifth, he struck out Freeman and Hernandez to keep it a one-run game.
Bello came back for the sixth and recorded one more out before Alex Cora went to the bullpen. He finished with three runs allowed over 5.1 innings on six hits, two walks and five strikeouts.
Unfortunately for Boston, Emmet Sheehan and the Dodgers staff was even better.
The Boston College alumnus was outstanding in his first big league start at Fenway Park, limiting the Red Sox to two runs over five innings on three hits and two walks. The bullpen gave the Red Sox fits from there, with Anthony Banda, Edgardo Henriquez, Alex Vesia and Ben Casparius combining for four scoreless innings.
From Bregman’s RBI double in the bottom of the third onwards, the Dodgers retired 21 of 24 Red Sox batters to end the game.
The Dodgers finally took control in the eighth when Freeman led off with a single off Chris Murphy, and Hernandez greeted right-hander Jorge Alcala with a two-run homer to stretch the lead to 5-2. Trevor Story led off the bottom of the ninth with a double and Romy Gonzalez was hit by a pitch to bring the tying run to the plate, but Rob Refsnyder grounded out to end the game
With the loss the Red Sox fall to 55-50, but they’ll have their ace on the mound Saturday when Garrett Crochet (11-4, 2.19) gets the ball against future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw (4-1, 3.27). First pitch is set for 7:15 p.m. on Fox.
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