Through five innings, Boston left-hander Eduardo Rodríguez was dealing. He decorated his first postseason start with six strikeouts and limited the Dodgers to just three bases as he traded scoreless inning after scoreless inning with opposing lefty Rich Hill. And then the sixth inning happened, and the wheels started to fall off.
After inadvertently plunking David Freese and issuing a three-pitch strikeout to knock out Max Muncy, Rodríguez found himself in hot water when Justin Turner roped a line drive down the third base line. The ball skirted just under Eduardo Núñez’s glove and into the left field corner, allowing Turner to reach second base and setting up Manny Machado for a go-ahead run. Rodríguez intentionally walked the slugger, but chaos erupted as Cody Bellinger hit into a force out. Christian Vázquez got the out at home, but his throw to first base ricocheted off of Bellinger’s back and the Dodgers eked out their first run of the night on the catcher’s errant throw.
The kicker: Down 1-0 with two outs and runners at the corners, the right-handed Yasiel Puig stepped up to the plate against Rodríguez and lofted a mammoth 439-footer out to left-center field to give the Dodgers a 4-0 lead.
As expected, it was the last at-bat of the night for Rodríguez, who slammed his glove to the ground in frustration as Puig rounded the bases. The Dodgers currently lead 4-0 in the seventh.