LOS ANGELES — The Red Sox capped off a thrilling weekend at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, using a three-homer third inning and 5 2/3 innings from left-hander Jake Bennett to beat the Dodgers, 8-4, and secure a three-game sweep.
It marked Boston’s first sweep of the Dodgers since their only previous sweep from June 18-20, 2010, at Fenway Park.
Boston set the tone early in the opening frame with RBI singles from Masataka Yoshida and Caleb Durbin. After Los Angeles grabbed a brief 3-2 lead in the second on Andy Pages’ two-run single, the Red Sox responded with a home run surge in the top of the third against Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan, hitting three home runs over a four-batter stretch.
Ceddanne Rafaela launched his 15th homer of the season – his fourth long ball in the series following Saturday’s two-homer performance – to tie the game at 3-3.
“I think it’s been awesome,” Rafaela said of his hot weekend at the plate. “I’m having a lot of fun with the boys, and I feel that’s what we were missing at the beginning of the season. … We just have a lot of fun with each other, and I’m really having a lot of fun playing baseball.”
Wilyer Abreu immediately turned around the next pitch, going back to back with a solo shot to right-center, his 17th of the year, to put Boston back on top, 4-3. Following a Willson Contreras flyout, Yoshida capped the frame by driving his fifth homer of the season.
“They grab a lead, but you find a way to get out of the inning in a one-run ballgame … and then respond immediately,” interim manager Chad Tracy said on the offense bouncing back so quickly. “They’ve been doing that for a month. … Felt like the game swung in our favor and then we held on from there.”
The offensive push provided plenty of backing for Bennett, who allowed three runs over 5 2/3 innings with four strikeouts and two walks. After navigating a three-run second inning, the starter settled down to post three consecutive scoreless frames — including a strikeout of Shohei Ohtani looking in the fifth — before handing the game to the bullpen.
“It helps you just kind of get into a groove,” Bennett said. “Once you find that rhythm, you just keep riding with it.”
Even when the Dodgers briefly broke that rhythm, that composure didn’t waver in the dugout.
“You know, there’s one inning, there’s always going to be a burst with that lineup, and he got punched in the mouth in one inning and settled himself in and gave us a great start,” Tracy said of Bennett’s resilience on the mound.
Jarren Duran added an insurance run in the sixth with a solo home run off reliever Kyle Hurt to extend the cushion to 6-3, a lead that stood up and gave Boston its 15th win in 16 road contests.
After the Dodgers pulled within two in the seventh, Boston capitalized on a pair of eighth-inning missteps — scoring on a wild pitch and a passed ball — to stretch the lead to 8-4, putting a bow on the victory.
“We’re playing really good baseball right now,” Abreu said after the game. “Contreras said this like a couple of weeks ago that we can beat anybody right now. We showed that today and the whole series … We showed that we play really good baseball and did everything right to win the game.”
The Red Sox will have an off-day on Monday before opening a home series against the White Sox at Fenway Park on Tuesday night. But as the team prepares to head back to Boston, Tracy reflected on the consistency that powered their road success.
“We’ve been [playing really good baseball] for a long period of time that we continue to go about it the right way and we’re getting the same results,” Tracy said. “We’re getting great pitching, we’re getting good bullpen, we’re getting timely hits, we’re getting more home runs. So again, regardless of who we’re playing, obviously this was a good one to finish off the road trip.”
