LOS ANGELES — In what was a record-setting month for the Red Sox, they may have saved their best win for last.
After coughing up a three-run lead and watching Dodger Stadium erupt three-run fifth, the Sox punched back — and hard — for a convincing 9-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But Friday night wasn’t just about the win. It was about the opponent and the setting.
The newly remade Red Sox have made comebacks a habit of late. Of their last dozen wins before Friday night, eight have seen them from come from behind.
This one, however, was different. This one came against the team with the best record in the game, the two-time defending champions.
“A lot of it,” said third baseman Caleb Durbin, “is the mental preparation of knowing what type of game it’s going to be and knowing what type of team (the Dodgers are), how dynamic of an offense they have, being able to score two, three, four runs at a time.
“I saw it a lot last year (with Milwaukee). We all know what they’re about, so you’ve just got to be mentally prepared for that type of game — to be up, go down and try to battle back again.”
Battle the Red Sox did. After Shohei Ohtani’s two-run homer gave the Dodgers their first lead of the night, the ballpark was electric. But the Sox weren’t cowed. Two innings later, they struck for five runs of their own before adding one more in the ninth to stretch the lead.
The last six runs of the game were all scored by the Red Sox.
“We’ve had quite a few of these wins now within the last month,” said Durbin, “even in the (just-completed) A’s series, going down and coming back. Having that confidence that, if we go down, we can still get back into it — that’s a big difference between where this team is now, compared to where we were earlier in the year.”
It may seem like forever ago, but the Red Sox went weeks and months into their season without a comeback win. Until earlier in July, they hadn’t won a game in which they trailed by three or more runs.
That’s changed. All three of the wins in Sacramento came after the Athletics had led first. Turns out, those victories were a mere warm-up for what they pulled off Friday night.
“I think it’s fairly clear by now we’ve got a resilient group,” said interim manager Chad Tracy. “We get out of the inning (in which the Dodgers scored three) and we’re down a run and there’s still a lot of game left. So if we can fight back and get a lead, we’ll be alright.”
The Red Sox were not cowed by the environment or the recent championship banners. They weren’t defeated by the Ohtani homer.
They had done this before.
The biggest blow in the five-run seventh was a two-run homer from Ceddanne Rafaela, who lashed a line drive down the left field line to put the Sox in front again.
“I was looking for that, to punch back right away,” said Rafaela, “and get back in the game. I think (comebacks) help to show us what we’re capable of a team, that when we lose games like that, we can come back and win games.’
And again, it wasn’t just how it happened, but also, against whom. The Dodgers appears to be headed for a third straight National League pennant. They have the best record in either league and carry with them an air of invincibility.
They gift-wrapped two unearned runs to the Red Sox in the first three innings and then decided that the fun and games were over.
But a funny thing happened after the Red Sox absorbed the Dodgers’ blows — they began to counterpunch.
“Obviously, every win’s big, no matter the opponent,” concluded Durbin. “Now we have a chance to win the series tomorrow.”
That didn’t seem to be in order in the middle of last night’s game. But the Red Sox are a different team than they were in April, May and June.
Tough opponents don’t intimidate them, nor do hostile ballparks. They’ve spent the month learning about themselves and found what they have to do to punch back.
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