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Let’s start with the dry stuff: The Red Sox can take one of the last three steps toward a World Series title with a win tonight behind David Price (16-7, 3.58 ERA) against the Dodgers at Fenway Park (8:09 p.m., FOX).
About Game 2: And now the fun stuff!:
First pitches tonight: Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Kevin Millar, Tim Wakefield,Jason Varitek, Keith Foulke, and Alan Embree
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) October 24, 2018
They’re all Boston legends, and, with a good start tonight, Price can join the club. He’s had a roller-coaster career with the Red Sox, one that has played out in miniature during these playoffs. He started confident but was waxed by the Yankees, rebounded to shut down the Astros en route to an efficient, career-defining performance in Game 2 of the ALCS and now faces the next biggest start of his life, for which he must be champing at the bit. With a good game tonight, a decade-plus of playoff woes — basically everything between his 2008 closeout of the Sox for Tampa and last week — can be relegated to the dustbin of history, alongside tales of Barry Bonds, Peyton Manning and Phil Mickelson failing repeatedly in the clutch. Come through once and you’ve come through forever, as far as forever is concerned. For Price, forever can start tonight. If the Sox take Game 2 behind a strong start, it’s hard to see how they lose the series, or how Price’s reputation doesn’t receive a permanent boost.
The Dodgers counter with Hyun-Jin Ryu (7-3, 1.97 ERA), the beefy 31-year-old lefty who’s quite good when he can stay healthy. That makes four lefties in four starts between the two teams, so we’ll see the righty-heavy lineups once again. The Sox roll out the same team as in Game 1 except at catcher, where Christian Vázquez will start and bat ninth, with Jackie Bradley Jr. moving up a spot in the order. The Dodgers again roll out their all-righty lineup, with Clay Bellinger, most notably, starting on the bench.
About Game 1: Chris Sale/Clayton Kershaw didn’t turn out exactly as planned and the game’s big blow was by a pinch hitter, as Eduardo Nunez’s seventh inning, three-run bomb gave the Sox an 8-4 lead they would carry through the finish.
Forecast: 44 degrees, partly cloudy and windy but without a raindrop in sight.
Today’s reading: Matt has some thoughts about Game 1 and is done second-guessing Alex Cora.
A good tweet:
I'M NAMING MY FIRSTBORN EDUARDO ALEX CORA NUNEZ REGARDLESS OF GENDER
— Kaley (@kaley8711) October 24, 2018
LINEUPS
World Series Game 2 vs. Dodgers
Lineup spot | Dodgers | Red Sox |
---|---|---|
Lineup spot | Dodgers | Red Sox |
1 | Brian Dozier, 2B | Mookie Betts, RF |
2 | Justin Turner, 3B | Andrew Benintendi, LF |
3 | David Freese, 1B | Steve Pearce, 1B |
4 | Manny Machado, SS | J.D. Martinez, DH |
5 | Chris Taylor, LF | Xander Bogaerts, SS |
6 | Matt Kemp, DH | Rafael Devers, 3B |
7 | Enrique Hernández, CF | Ian Kinsler, 2B |
8 | Yasiel Puig, RF | Jackie Bradley Jr., CF |
9 | Austin Barnes, C | Christian Vázquez, C |
SP | Hyun-Jin Ryu, LHP | David Price, LHP |