The Dodgers and Red Sox each blew leads along the way before Smith settled matters with an RBI single in the 11th inning.
LOS ANGELES — The last time the Boston Red Sox came to Dodger Stadium, they played an 18-inning, seven-hour, 20-minute marathon during the 2018 World Series.
By comparison, this one was a breeze.
The Dodgers and Red Sox swapped leads four times, the Saturday afternoon seesaw finally ending when Will Smith stroked an RBI single in the bottom of the 11th inning, giving the Dodgers a 7-6 walkoff win.
“We ended the first half not playing great baseball and we started the second half here at home against a team that’s playing really, really good, one of the hotter teams in baseball,” said Kike’ Hernandez who celebrated reaching 10 years of major-league service time Saturday by having game-tying hits in the ninth and 10th innings. “We played two really tough games, and I think these tougher games are the ones that say a lot about a team. Hopefully these are the types of games that we need to take off as a team and not look back.”
It was the Dodgers’ fifth consecutive game in which the lead changed hands in the eighth inning or later. Shohei Ohtani’s ninth-inning double broke a tie and gave the Dodgers a win in Detroit. Back-to-back walkoff defeats followed. Friday night, Freddie Freeman’s eighth-inning grand slam decided things.
“There was a lot of back and forth, homers, clutch hits. It was a fun one to be part of,” Smith said. “I wish we could have closed it out a little earlier.”
The Red Sox could have said the same thing. The two teams combined to blow four leads over the final eight innings.
Dodgers relievers let two one-run leads get away then Evan Phillips gave up a two-run home run in the 10th inning. Even former Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen got in on the act. He couldn’t protect a one-run lead in the ninth for the Red Sox, giving up his first home run of the season and blowing his first save since April when Kike’ Hernandez led off the inning with a game-tying home run.
Hernandez followed that with another game-tying hit an inning later.
It was that kind of day Saturday — eventually. The 4:15 p.m. start brought shadows into play early and the only run in the first four innings came on a solo home run by Gavin Lux. Twelve runs scored in the seven innings that followed.
It was the best of Justin Wrobleski’s three big-league starts. The rookie left-hander held the Red Sox scoreless into the fifth inning, retiring left-handed hitting Dominic Smith on a fly ball to start that inning.
But six of the eight runs Wrobleski gave up in his first two starts came in the fourth or fifth inning. Smith was the 17th batter Wrobleski faced and the fly ball came on his 83rd pitch of the day (one short of his big-league high). That was as far as the Dodgers had decided they wanted the 24-year-old to go. So Dave Roberts waved for the bullpen.
Three consecutive hits followed off right-hander Yohan Ramirez and the Dodgers’ first lead disappeared.
“He’s still kind of cutting his teeth,” Roberts said. “The at-bats they were having, kind of grinding a little bit the first four innings. I didn’t feel he had enough to get through four more hitters where he was at, so I wanted to shorten the game, go to the pen.
“And after that, you know, there were some good things out of the pen and there were some things that were not so good.”
The Dodgers got the lead back an inning later. Shohei Ohtani led off the bottom of the sixth with a line drive that split the gap in left-center field for a double. After Smith struck out, Red Sox starter Brayan Bello worked Freeman carefully after his Friday heroics and walked him.
Teoscar Hernandez drove Ohtani in with the tying run on a single to right field and both runners moved up on a wild throw from right fielder Wilyer Abreu. That error set up a sacrifice fly by Andy Pages to give the Dodgers a 3-2 lead.
But Anthony Banda was the wrong choice to protect the Dodgers’ second one-run lead of the day. He walked Jarren Duran and gave up a two-run home run to Tyler O’Neill.
The Dodgers were all set to keep the seesaw going when back-to-back singles by Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez and a walk of Pages loaded the bases with one out in the eighth inning. But Miguel Rojas checked his swing on a 2-and-0 pitch well below the strike zone and dribbled it back to Sox reliever Josh Winckowski. Winckowski shoveled it to catcher Connor Wong to start a 1-2-3 double play that ended the Dodgers’ threat.
Jansen came on in the ninth having closed out 19 of 20 save opportunities for the Red Sox this season. Teammates in both Boston and Los Angeles, Kike’ Hernandez sent one of Jansen’s cutters into the left-field pavilion to tie the game.
“I’ve played a lot behind Kenley,” Hernandez said. “I had only faced him once. … He broke my bat on a two-seamer and it went out to the warning track. This was in Atlanta in 2022,
“The whole way back to the dugout, he was yelling at me, ‘Keep cheating to the cutter. Keep cheating to the cutter.’ He’s not really throwing that two-seamer this year and there’s no mystery to what Kenley’s trying to do. … He gave me one to handle and I didn’t miss it.”
Phillips was part of blowing a five-run lead in the ninth inning in the final game before the break and he started his second half by leaving a sweeper up and over the plate. O’Neill hammered it for his second home run of the game to give the Red Sox the lead in the 10th.
“We’re trying to dig in on it,” Roberts said of Phillips’ recent struggles. “He says he feels good, but the execution isn’t what it has been and should be.
“We need to get that execution dialed in. So I don’t know if it’s a mechanical thing. I know he’s one of the most mentally tough guys that we have. And one of the most intelligent guys we have. But this game is hard and dealing with failure is difficult.”
The Dodgers made it a one-run game again in the 10th inning on Pages’ RBI double then Kike’ Hernandez came through with a game-tying hit for the second consecutive inning. His two-out, two-strike RBI single drove Pages in and kept the game going.
“I’m just really glad that this happened and I was able to come through,” Hernandez said. “I haven’t really been able to come through that much this year.”
Blake Treinen finally put up a zero from the Dodgers’ bullpen in the top of the 11th. In the bottom of the 11th, walks (including an intentional pass to Ohtani) loaded the bases for Smith who sent his game-winning single through a five-man infield to end things.
