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Baseball Today: Monday, March 31 »
March 30, 2008
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.''
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