There were vital moments from Game One of the World Series when Boston gained the upper hand
From a strategic standpoint, Boston’s 8-4 victory over Los Angeles Tuesday in the first game of the
The matchup pitted a pair of All Stars routinely ranked among their league’s best – Boston’s Chris Sale and Los Angeles’ Clayton Kershaw – against one another. Yet neither could record so much as a single out after the fourth inning.
The Red Sox led almost all the way, and eventually won by four runs. Yet a case could easily be made that confused defensive play gave Boston three of those runs and that a debatable managerial decision led to three more runs coming home.
Certainly, the visitors appeared occasionally to suffer from a case of Fenway disorientation, as witnessed by damaging incidents in the first, fifth and seventh innings. At times, however, the Dodgers also did themselves in. That was especially so in the seventh, when the elements combined to deny Los Angeles possible tying or go-ahead runs, then give Boston three insurance runs.
Let’s walk back through Game One’s key decision points and assess the impact they had on the eventual 8-4 final score. We’ll find a more closely contested game than the scoreboard suggests, one that turned on a succession of small things. A little impatience at the wrong time, a smidgen of timidity around jutting walls, and a manager’s decision to remove a pitcher in the process of doing his job well; put them together and you have a 1-0 Red Sox advantage entering Game Two Wednesday night.