Crawford surrenders five homers as Red Sox are swept in LA
LOS ANGELES — It was an ambush by Jarren Duran, who belted James Paxton’s third pitch of the game over the fence in center for a two-run homer to give the Red Sox a boost they truly needed after losing the first two games of the three-game series at Dodger Stadium in agonizing fashion.
Unfortunately for the Red Sox, the Dodgers had a much more emphatic ambush in store, and Kutter Crawford endured the brunt of it.
The Dodgers wound up playing Home Run Derby on Sunday Night Baseball, belting six long balls — five of them against Crawford in a 9-6 Red Sox loss. The signature moment was a jaw-dropping shot by Shohei Ohtani (116.7 mph exit velocity, projected distance of 473 feet) that nearly cleared Dodger Stadium.
“I haven’t looked at the video, but that’s a good hitting team,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “And I think Freddie [Freeman] kind of changed the momentum right away. We got two outs, and then the first pitch, he hits a homer. After that, they just kept going, tied the game, and they did a good job.”
It was hard to see this coming considering how brilliant Crawford was in his previous three starts, during which he went 3-0 with a 0.45 ERA.
