A few thoughts on the Dodgers heading into the middle game of their series against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
Teoscar Hernández provided the Dodgers some breathing room with a two-run home run on Friday night, helping them to their least stressful win of the last three-plus weeks. The home run was a sight for sore eyes as well for Hernández, who went 75 plate appearances and over 19 games since his last home run, on June 21.
Hernández has 15 career home runs and 47 RBI in 46 games at Fenway Park, hitting .283/.247/.618 in Boston, with the bulk of that production coming during his time with the Blue Jays.
Hyeseong Kim has been a net positive as an addition, especially with his defense at second base. He’s mostly held his own at the plate as well, hitting .303/.338/.409 with a 111 wRC+ while in a fairly strict platoon, with 89 percent of his plate appearances coming against right-handed pitchers.
But some of the concerns about how Kim might need time to adjust to major league pitching have seemed appropriate so far in July. Kim is hitting .176/.192/.196 this month with a 41.2-percent strikeout rate, with 21 strikeouts against only one walk. That included the golden sombrero on Friday night in Boston, with four strikeouts in his four trips to the plate. Kim struck out in each of his last six plate appearances.
The Dodgers did not score against Garrett Crochet last season, when the left-hander blanked them for 5⅔ innings with six strikeouts and no walks while with the White Sox last June 24. But veteran left-hander James Paxton mostly matched Crochet with five scoreless frames and six strikeouts of his own, and then the Dodgers scored three runs off the Chicago bullpen to win.
Crochet this month has allowed only three runs in 20 innings, and on the season leads the majors in strikeouts and leads the American League in innings pitched (135⅓) and wins (11). The role of opposing veteran left-hander on Saturday will be played by Clayton Kershaw.
This will be the first regular season start for Kershaw at Fenway Park, though he has pitched there before, taking the loss in Game 1 of the 2018 World Series. The only other current major league parks Kershaw has not pitched in during the regular season are Globe Life Field in Texas, where the left-hander made five starts during the 2020 postseason, and Camden Yards in Baltimore. Kershaw might have a chance to check off that last one when the Dodgers play the Orioles on the road from September 5-7.
Saturday game info
- Teams: Dodgers at Red Sox
- Ballpark: Fenway Park, Boston
- Start time: 4:15 p.m. PT
- TV: Fox (Joe Davis, John Smoltz)
- Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)