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Final: Red Sox 7, Dodgers 4

BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer

LOS ANGELES -- Somewhere in there -- hidden behind the pomp and circumstance and the ceremony and the strange field configuration -- was a baseball game Saturday night at the Los Angeles Coliseum, one in which the Red Sox pounded the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-4.

Playing in front of the largest crowd -- 115,300 -- ever to watch a baseball game, the Sox spotted the Dodgers a 1-0 lead, then scored the next seven runs before the Dodgers responded with three runs in the late innings.

"It was really a pretty special night,'' said Terry Francona. "I don't think any of us knew what to expect. But everybody involved did a great job. It ended up being a great night all around.''

Tim Wakefield pitched into the sixth, allowing a single run -- unearned -- on five hits and recorded the win, a signficant feat for a flyball pitcher in a ballpark where the left-field line was just 201 feet from home plate.

"I thought Wake did a great job of not letting things get in the way of his preparation,'' Francona said. "He threw strikes and did well.''

"He's been really good every game since I've started catching him,'' said catcher Kevin Cash. "It's not easy to maintain your stuff every time out, but he has. He's definitely in a good spot with his mechanics.''

Cash gave his batterymate some support with a three-run homer in the second. Kevin Youkilis added a two-run shot in the third.

"That was pretty cool,'' said Cash of his homer. "I would rather it be in a regular-season game, but if it has to come in an exhibition game, I'm glad it was this one.''

Bryan Corey pitched two innings and allowed a run. Hideki Okajima tossed a scoreless eighth and Jonathan Papelbon closed it out, touched for a two-run homer with two out in the ninth by Blake DeWitt.

Cash and Francona said the football lights -- higher than usual for a baseball setting -- and a tough hitter's background made it difficult for batters to see in the first few innings.

"But once they got going,'' said Francona, "they had fun with it.''

Posted by Sean McAdam  at 7:44 AM | Permalink

Photo: Kareem takes his shot

Journal photo/Bob Breidenbach

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the former Los Angeles Lakers basketball great, grew up as a Dodger fan in Brooklyn, and always said one of his greatest sports memories was when the Dodgers won their first World Series, finally beating the Yankees in 1955. (He brought up the comparison when the Lakers beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals, after losing to them so many times, in 1985.) Saturday night he was asked to throw in one of the first pitches, as many former Dodger players stood behind him. When he wasn't satisfied with his overhand pitch, he took the ball back and showed everyone his classic "sky hook" shot that he was known for on the basketball court,

Posted by Bob Breidenbach  at 4:42 AM | Permalink

Photos: Getting ready for the game

Journal photos/Bob Breidenbach

Bench coach Brad Mills and Manny Ramirez (top photo) head onto the Los Angeles Coliseum in preparation for Saturday night's exhibition. The Sox do their stretching exercises (middle photo), watched by the fans (bottom photo).

Posted by Bob Breidenbach  at 4:29 AM | Permalink

Photo: I got it!

Journal photo/Bob Breidenbach

The left-field fence at the Los Angeles Coliseum was only 201 feet from the plate, so a high net was put in place to replicate a wall. Still, fans were able to collect a lot of drives hit over the net during batting practice and the game.

Posted by Bob Breidenbach  at 4:23 AM | Permalink

Photos: Short left field

Journal photos / Bob Breidenbach

The Red Sox and Dodgers played at the Los Angeles Coliseum Saturday night in a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the team moving to the West Coast. (The Dodgers played their first four seasons in L.A., from 1958-61, at the Coliseum while Dodger Stadium was being built.) The field was squeezed into the space at the since-reconfigured Coliseum, allowing only a 201-foot left-field line (top photo). Both teams played their left fielder toward left center and the shortstops and third basemen covered short left-field area. In the bottom photo, Red Sox shortstop Julio Lugo fields a grounder that caromed off the left-field wall.

Posted by Bob Breidenbach  at 4:11 AM | Permalink

Photo: Record crowd at the Coliseum

Journal photo/Bob Breidenbach

The crowd of 115,300 at the Los Angeles Coliseum was a world record for attendance at a baseball game. Dodgers pitcher Esteban Loaiza warms up before the game surrounded by fans in all the seats.

Posted by Bob Breidenbach  at 4:06 AM | Permalink

Sox make it 7-1

LOS ANGELES -- An RBI double from Bobby Kielty and a run-scoring single from Alex Cora have upped the Red Sox lead to a comfortable 7-1 in the top of the sixth.

Tim Wakefield is coming out for what is presumed to be his final inning of work. To date, he's been superb, allowing just three hits through the first five innings.

-- SEAN McADAM

Posted by Sean McAdam  at 12:01 AM | Permalink