LOS ANGELES — The odds were with the Red Sox in the eighth inning Friday night. The results? Those were another matter.
Five outs away from a win over the Los Angeles Dodgers to help kick-start the second half of the season, the Red Sox instead saw their bullpen implode.
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In the span of a handful hitters, the Red Sox went from a 1-0 lead to a 4-1 deficit, thanks to a grand slam by Freddie Freeman off lefty Brennan Bernardino. Coming into the game, the Red Sox had been 42-2 in games in which they led after seven innings.
Zack Kelly issued a leadoff walk to Miguel Vargas before he got Chris Taylor looking at a called third strike. With two of the next three hitters lefthanded — Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman — Alex Cora opted to go with the lefthanded Bernardino.
Ohtani hit a double that kicked up chalk on the left field line, sending Vargas to third. Cora elected to intentionally walk Smith to load the bases. Freeman, on the second pitch of the at-bat, drilled a curveball down-and-in on a line to right for the go-ahead grand slam.
“Just (trying) to get ahead of him, make my pitches and I didn’t (expletive) make it,” said a seething Bernandino after the 4-1 loss.
The grand slam was devastating enough for Bernardino, as the Sox lost a game that would have served as a momentum-building win for the Sox. That is came in his hometown only made it worse.
“This is big for me,” said Bernardino. “It’s back home, L.A. Got a lot of family here. Couldn’t have gone worse. I let the team down tonight. But tomorrow’s a new day, get back at it; (I’ll) do my job tomorrow.”
As miserable as he was for allowing the game-winner, Bernardino turned philosophical when asked about recovering from such a demoralizing defeat.
“It’s part of the game,” he said. “It’s part of the game. You win some, you lose some. You help the team some nights; other nights, you do the opposite. You don’t help your team, you hurt your team. But I feel like, over the course of a season, I’m going to keep working. Tomorrow’s a new day, I’ll come back and close it out next time (starter Nick) Pivetta pitches and throws a gem like that (six shutout innings).”
The Red Sox might have turned to either Justin Slaten or Chris Martin — currently on the IL for the third time this season — had either been available. But Cora didn’t want to use their absence as an excuse.
“We’re going to be fine. We’re not going to make excuses,” said Cora. “We’re going to keep moving forward and we’re going to trust the guys that we have.”
