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How to watch: Fox has the broadcast at 8 p.m. Eastern. You can also stream the game here.
The Dodgers return to the World Series, where they’ll face the Boston Red Sox, who won 108 games this year before dispatching the Yankees and defending champs Houston Astros. Stay here for inning-by-inning updates and badysis from Fenway Park in Boston.
Dodgers vs. Red Sox: Game 1 Starting Pitchers and Story Lines
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In response to Chris Sale starting for Boston, the Dodgers are employing a lineup made up entirely of right-handed batters. ESPN Stats & Information reported that the last time a World Series lineup had no left-handed batters was in Game 2 of the 2005 World Series when Mark Buehrle started for the Chicago White Sox.
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Clayton Kershaw will be on the hill for the Dodgers. The left-hander is one of the greatest pitchers in major league history, and has mixed in far more success in the playoffs than he typically gets credit for (while having had plenty of stinkers as well), but he’s up against unfamiliar batters tonight. He has never faced six of the players in Boston’s starting lineup, and while the three he has faced have combined to bat .467 against him, that is in just 15 at-bats. He has never pitched a game against the Red Sox or at Fenway Park.
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The Red Sox won a major league-best 108 games, so it’s no surprise that they also had the best record at home. But few teams were even close to the 57 wins Boston got at Fenway Park. The Yankees had 53 wins at home, and three others had 51. The Dodgers won just 45 at home, while they won 47 on the road.
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The Dodgers are trying to win the World Series a year after losing it. It is something that has happened several times in baseball history, most recently with the Kansas City Royals losing in 2014 and winning 2015. The Yankees pulled off the feat in 1976-77, 1960-61, 1957-58, 1942-43, 1926-27 and 1922-23.
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Matt Kemp will be in the starting lineup for the Dodgers. The 34-year-old had a rough stretch a few years ago where injuries and poor fielding led many to sour on him, but he had a terrific season in his return to Los Angeles. He hit .290 with a .338 on-base percentage and .481 slugging percentage, hitting 21 homers and generating 2.1 offensive wins above replacement. Provided he is not asked to field a position he is a huge badet.
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Much has been written about this being a rematch of the 1916 World Series, but unlike that series, this one will be held at Fenway Park. Fenway opened in 1912, and hosted that year’s World Series, but the Red Sox used Braves Field as their home park in 1915, 1916 and 1918 to take advantage of its larger capacity. The games in Braves Field had more than 40,000 in attendance while the games at Fenway in 1912 held just over 30,000.
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The Red Sox signed J.D. Martinez in response to the Yankees trading for Giancarlo Stanton, and it was viewed by many at the time as a somewhat lesser addition. Instead, the 31-year-old outfielder and designated hitter had the best season of his career, with 43 home runs, 130 runs batted in, a .402 on-base percentage and a .629 slugging percentage. Even if you adjusted his on-base-plus-slugging percentage for his having played half his games in hitter-friendly Fenway Park, he was still 73 percent better than the average major league batter. Stanton was just 26 percent better.
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