The Los Angeles Dodgers dropped their series against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday in part due to a misplay from Michael Conforto that allowed a run to score and put the go-ahead run on third base.
It was just one of a series of misplays for the Dodgers outfielders at Fenway Park as they had trouble dealing with the balls near the Green Monster.
On the fly ball to left field off the bat of Roman Anthony in the fifth inning, it ricocheted off the Green Monster and rolled back toward the infield to Mookie Betts. It turned into a triple because Conforto went too close to the wall and was not in position to field the ball after hitting the wall.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who has experience out there playing balls off the Green Monster, shared his insight into dealing with it and took some of the blame off Conforto, via SportsNet LA:
“I think he just caught himself too deep, too close to the wall. There is certainly an art to playing the wall. I don’t know how much time he’s played off the wall, but it’s a skill. Knowing when to retreat, give yourself that space, where it hits off the wall, how hard it might hit off the wall. It turned a double into a triple.”
Ultimately, that specific play may not have changed the outcome all that much as Dustin May allowed a two-run homer to Alex Bregman just after it that gave Boston a 4-3 lead.
But just as a whole in the series, Andy Pages also had a misplay off the Green Monster, and the Dodgers produced some outs on the bases as they did not properly estimate how much time they had once the ball hit off the wall:
“It’s been a couple years since we’ve been here, so I can’t really piece it all together. But yeah, they certainly took advantage of balls high off the wall, running. We didn’t take any extra bases off the wall, because obviously they played it well. There was that play [Saturday] night that I think Andy lost track of where the wall was at. Just things like that. But it’s the home-field advantage, and this is one of those ballparks with the quirkiness, it probably has the most home-field advantage.”
The Red Sox took advantage of the mistakes by the Dodgers seemingly each time, and that may have ultimately been the difference in the series as a whole. That normally wouldn’t be a huge concern due to the strange dimensions of Fenway Park, but it has continued a trend of sloppy play by the Dodgers.
Over the last month, the Dodgers have been producing numerous outs on the bases and failing to record outs on defense when they have the opportunity to. Along with their bullpen struggles and offensive inconsistency, it has led to a rough month of July for the club.
Dodger fans at Fenway Park
When the Dodgers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead against the Boston Red Sox on Saturday thanks to a pair of solo home runs from Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández in the first inning, they were met with loud cheers.
That was due to a large contingent of Dodgers fans being on hand at Fenway Park. Some of which was attributed to traveling group Pantone 294 having more than 2,000 fans with them. Red Sox manager Alex Cora credited Dodgers fans for showing up in big numbers anywhere the team plays.
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