BOSTON — The comparison was not a favorable one for Clayton Kershaw at this point – the 37-year-old left-hander relying on guts and guile to get major-league hitters out against the newer-model dominant left-hander, Garrett Crochet.
Of all the things time has eroded from Kershaw’s arsenal, his ability to finish off hitters has been one of the most noticeable. He gave up six hits Saturday. Five of them came with two strikes on the batter. Meanwhile, Crochet struck out 10 in six innings as the Dodgers lost to the Boston Red Sox, 4-2, Saturday night.
Kershaw struck out just two – the second 3,000 harder to come by than the first – despite getting two strikes on 13 of the 21 batters he faced in 4⅔ innings. He got only six swings-and-misses on 91 pitches.
Trevor Story, Carlos Narvaez, Jarren Duran and Abraham Toro were four of those two-strike hitters in the second inning. But Story drew a leadoff walk, Narvaez doubled off the Green Monster and Duran tripled to the wall in center field to drive in two runs. Toro’s sacrifice fly made it a three-run inning.
That undid a powerful start by the Dodgers against Crochet.
Shohei Ohtani hit Crochet’s third pitch of the game 414 feet to straightaway center field over the high wall there for a home run, his 38th of the season and sixth in the past seven games. Two batters later, Teoscar Hernandez lofted a fly ball into the Monster seats for a solo home run – his 16th and 48th RBI in 47 career games at Fenway Park.
Crochet followed that by giving up back-to-back singles to Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages. But Freeman made the first of a few bad baserunning decisions by the Dodgers when he tried to go from first to third. Worse for the Dodgers, they chased his bad decision by challenging the call. When the call was unchanged by replay review, the Dodgers were unable to challenge again in the game.
That might have come in handy in the fifth inning.
Alex Bregman fell behind 1-and-2 with two outs but fouled off five pitches from Kershaw and then dribbled an infield single up the third-base line. He scored from first on a double by Roman Anthony – a close enough play at the plate that the Dodgers might have challenged.
That was the end of Kershaw’s night. Crochet, meanwhile, recovered from his double-dinger first inning to hold the Dodgers to four hits over the next five innings, striking out nine of the 20 batters he faced after the first inning and stranding runners at third base in the third and fourth innings.
The Dodgers didn’t fare much better against the Red Sox bullpen. They struck out five more times in three innings against Justin Wilson, Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman.
They might have used a challenge again in the seventh inning when Will Smith tried to stretch a hit into a double but was called out at second on another close play.
Mookie Betts rejoined the team in time to pinch hit against Chapman in the ninth inning. He took a called third strike to end the game.
