The Los Angeles Dodgers got help for their ailing bullpen by acquiring Ryan Madson on Friday.Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported the
Washington Nationals traded Madson to the Dodgers.Per Jon Heyman of
Fancred
Eddie Robinson Jersey , the Nationals will receive a prospect in the deal.The Dodgers' bullpen has become a liability as the season has gone on,
especially in the month of August. Closer Kenley Jansen was initiallyexpectedto
miss a month with an irregular heartbeat prior to an Aug. 9 game against the
Colorado Rockies.Since the Dodgers activated Jansen off the disabled list on
Aug. 20, he's allowed 10 hits, seven earned runs and four homers in four
innings.John Axford, Ross Stripling, Tony Cingrani, Daniel Hudson,JT Chargoisand
Erik Goeddel are currently on the disabled list.Los Angeles'entire relief
corpshas a 4.73 ERA with 14 homers allowed over 85.2 innings in August.Madson
has struggled in 2018 with a 5.28 ERA in 49 games, but Los Angeles is at a point
where it needs healthy arms that can help it get through the season's final
month.A change of scenery could help get Madson back on track. The Dodgers will
need him to be effective as they try to make up a two-game deficit in the
National League West. BOSTON ??How about we just stop right here, as even a
freaking pinch hitter for the Boston Red Sox unleashed a screaming line drive
that jackhammered its way through the cold, wet night air and over the Green
Monster.If it wasn't before, it should be monster-ishly clear now in the
aftermath of Eduardo Nunez's three-run blast in the seventh inning to crack
wide-open Boston's 8-4 Game 1 World Series win over the Los Angeles Dodgers here
Tuesday night that these Red Sox are setting up as a team for the ages.This
lineup is relentless in all the right ways. It boasts power, contains contact
hitters and it can, as they love to say in Beantown, #DoDamage throughout, from
Nos. 1 through 9, from leadoff hitter Mookie Betts to the very end of manager
Alex Cora's bench.This team, the one that started 17-2
http://www.indiansfanproshop.com/authentic-matt-belisle-jersey , won a franchise-record 108 games, blitzed the New York Yankees in an American
League Division Series and crushed the Houston Astros in the AL Championship
Series...how exactly are the Dodgers supposed to handle it?Other than not
scoring four or five runs in a two-run first inning in which three of the first
four Red Sox to face Kershaw cracked singles off him, "it was about as perfect
as you can draw it up," Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes said. "[Nunez's] ability to
come off the bench and hit a three-run homer is incredible. It was huge."David
J. Phillip/Associated PressThe last two times out now, the Red Sox have pelted
Astros ace Justin Verlander and bloodied Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw. This is
what they do."We have a great group of guys, and we don't fear anybody," Betts
said. "They put their pants on the same way we do."Welcome to Fenway Park, Mr.
Kershaw. Check your pockets before they're picked.It was his first-ever
appearance in this storied museum. His first-ever matchup with the Red Sox. And
one he will not soon forget. The Sox pantsed him immediately, scoring those two
runs in the first, another in the third, and then, after manager Dave Roberts
hooked Kershaw following a walk and a single to start the fifth, Ryan Madson
allowed both of those inherited runners to score."I don't think he had the
fastball command that he typically has," Roberts said. "He was missing up in the
zone. I don't think his slider had the depth that we're used to seeing."And
those guys, to their credit, they put some good at-bats on him. And we didn't
play the defense we typically do."Absolutely true. And that made the Dodgers'
climb in this World Series opener even steeper.What helped set up Boston's first
inning was first baseman David Freese's failure to catch Betts' pop foul on the
muddy warning track behind first base. Right fielder Yasiel Puig rifled a throw
home instead of hitting the cutoff man, which allowed Andrew Benintendi to take
second??nd score two batters later. On the mound, Kershaw looked perplexed.
Then
Mike Napoli Jersey , in the fifth, Madson's wild pitch bounced past catcher Austin Barnes to help set up two more runs.David J. Phillip/Associated PressBy
that fifth inning, seven of the nine Red Sox hitters had reached base. Even
light-hitting catcher Sandy Leon finished with two knocks. No wonder there was a
gorgeous rainbow over Fenway Park between late-afternoon rain showers.And when
the merry-go-round is spinning like that, if you're playing defense, you simply
cannot give up extra outs.Against this particular Boston club, it's a death
sentence."It was huge," Betts said of scoring twice in the first inning. "From
the beginning, we played aggressively and let them know that we're not going to
ease into it."Right off the bat, go 100 miles an hour."Did they ever. When the
season started, when the playoffs started and now in the World Series. Ace
starter Chris Sale didn't last any longer than Kershaw??e, too, failed to get an
out in the fifth inning. But the Boston lineup (mostly) and the Dodgers'
sloppiness (minimally) gave Sale more slack than Kershaw.It's been this way all
season. One enormous difference between these two clubs: The Red Sox can beat
you in so many ways because they can hit for power and average. The Sox ranked
26th in the majors in strikeouts this season; only Pittsburgh, Seattle, Houston
and Cleveland fanned fewer times. The Dodgers, whose offense has been all or
nothing much of the time, ranked eighth in the majors in whiffs.The Dodgers hit
the second-most home runs in the majors?? franchise-record 235, which led the
National League??hile Boston ranked ninth. But the Dodgers also ranked 29th in
batting average with runners in scoring position and two outs??heir .199 tied
the lowly Baltimore Orioles.Part of that relates to the inordinately high number
of strikeouts contained in the Los Angeles lineup??nd the Dodgers whiffed 12
times in Game 1 (the Red Sox checked in with 12, too). But while the Dodgers
have scored 24 runs this postseason via the homer and 23 runs when they don't
put the ball out of the park
Carlos Baerga Jersey , Boston keeps coming at you in various ways: The Red Sox this postseason have scored 21 runs via the homer and 43 without the benefit
of a homer. The difference is striking."Overall, we're pretty relentless,"
president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said during a conversation
before Game 5 of the ALCS in Houston the other day. "We battle. And we can win
in different ways."It's nice we hit more home runs this year than we did in the
past. But we're athletic, we use the whole field, we score from first on a
double??he majority of guys, not all of them??e score from second, we take extra
bases. There's a lot of different stuff that we do."We're also a good defensive
club. First base, second base, catching??e're really good. So, we win games in
different ways."Dodger president Stan Kasten joked about payrolls after his team
eliminated Milwaukee."I'm a little concerned about having to play these high
payroll teams," Kasten quipped, referring to Boston ranking second in the majors
this year with a $206 million payroll while the Dodgers were 11th at $157
million. "It seems unfair to make us do that. But we're going to give it our
best anyway."What was unfair in Game 1 was the stacked Boston lineup that
destroyed the Dodgers from various angles. Nunez's homer came against lefty Alex
Wood, once a starter but now a reliever in the playoffs. Pedro Baez was doing
just fine in relief, and Roberts left himself open to questioning with that
move. It was the third homer Wood has allowed this postseason.By the end of the
mauling, the Fenway Park crowd was roaring that age-old favorite chant in
Boston. As "Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!" carried deep into the night, the notion of
beating these Red Sox seemed as difficult as stopping those echoes. Scott Miller
covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow
Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.
