LOS ANGELES — The weekend was a complete win, even if there was not a single victory to show for it.
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The Dodgers fell for the third time in three days when their welcome-aboard party was crashed in an 8-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday. There was still a prize waiting for them in the clubhouse when left-hander Tarik Skubal arrived to join the team flight to Chicago.
The Dodgers completed a trade for baseball’s top pitcher on Saturday night then made it official Sunday when President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman said the club landed the only pitcher on the market they intended to pursue.
The Dodgers open a three-game series against the Cubs on Monday in one last teaser before Skubal makes his Dodgers debut on Tuesday.
“I don’t think I have felt this good after getting swept, so that’s a silver lining, I guess,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
After he was rumored to be a potential trade piece, right-hander Emmet Sheehan (4-8) was unable to bask in his reprieve. Sheehan was rocked for five runs and six hits over just 2⅔ innings with a walk and four strikeouts.
“I think it was bad execution,” Sheehan said. “I know those pitches that those guys can hit. It was in the scouting report. I just missed my spot.”
The Dodgers have been using bullpen games to piece together a six-man rotation since the All-Star break, but with Skubal on board and Blake Snell back soon starting slots are getting filled fast. Tyler Glasnow’s return is further down the line.
“Everyone knows what we think of (Sheehan). I mean the talent is there,” Roberts said. “The care, the preparedness, all that stuff is there. But when you’re pitching in big league games you’ve got to get guys out. I don’t know where we go from here. We all pull for him, but you got to perform.”
A trio of Red Sox left-handed starters kept the Dodgers off balance all weekend, with rookie Jake Bennett the latest to shine. Bennett (7-4) worked his way around one rough inning to keep Boston humming along as the hottest team in baseball.
The Red Sox have owned the middle of the season and are now 23-4 since the start of July to move into playoff contention. Dominating starting pitching and a relentless offense have changed the team’s fortunes since Manager Alex Cora and five coaches were fired on April 25 following a 10-17 start.
Chad Tracy, son of former Dodgers manager Jim Tracy, took over as interim manager and is making an impression.
“They can really pitch. They don’t beat themselves. Dynamic. They put the ball in play,” Roberts said. “… And shoot, I’ve known Chad since he was a young kid (while I was) playing for his father, so I’m really happy for him.”
All of Roberts’ descriptors have applied to his own team for years, and were present in October the past two seasons. Offensively, though, there remains work to do. Free-agent addition Kyle Tucker has looked nothing like the player who was signed to a four-year, $240 million contract in the offseason.
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Shortstop Mookie Betts is struggling at the plate and catcher Will Smith remains out with neck inflammation. Backup catcher Dalton Rushing was a late scratch Sunday with minor right arm irritation.
Roberts labeled Rushing as day-to-day while adding that the issue might be in the elbow. With less than 24 hours remaining before the trade deadline arrives, an additional catcher might be on the wish list.
Elieser Alfonzo took over at catcher on Sunday and brought home the Dodgers first run on an RBI ground out. But the Red Sox already had a 2-0 lead on first-inning RBI singles from Masataka Yoshida and Caleb Durbin.
Andy Pages followed Alfonzo’s run-scoring grounder with a two-run single later in the second inning for a short-lived 3-2 lead.
After line-drive hits highlighted the Red Sox’s first inning, they leaned into some power in the third. Ceddanne Rafaela’s uprising continued when he led off the inning with a home run, his fourth of the series. One pitch later, Wilyer Abreu went deep to give Boston the lead for good.
Yoshida added a home run later in the third for a 5-3 lead. When Andrew Monasterio was hit by a pitch two batters later, Sheehan’s day was done.
Boston’s power show continued when Jarren Duran hit a home run in the sixth inning.
“I think that if you look at it unemotionally, they outplayed us,” Roberts said. “They were hungrier. They got a lot of players over there that are under control, they’re fighting for a higher seed in the postseason. They’re playing good baseball, and they outplayed us. It’s not an excuse. I don’t feel good about it, but that’s kind of what I saw.”
Pages struck again with an RBI single in the seventh to get the Dodgers within 6-4.
The Dodgers’ forgettable play on the field was capped in the eighth inning when the Red Sox scored one run on a wild pitch from Wyatt Mills and a passed ball by Alfonzo to take an 8-4 lead.
Now the Dodgers hit the road, where they went 6-3 to start the post-break schedule on a trip to New York, Philadelphia and back to New York again.
“Now, a quick turnaround, get into Chicago and we have a team that’s fighting to keep their spot in the playoff race,” Roberts said. “They’re going to come after us. So we just got to go out there and reset.”
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