A chilly and wet night at Fenway Park did nothing to stimy the bats of the Boston Red Sox. Boston’s offense tagged Dodger’s ace Clayton Kershaw for seven hits and five runs over four innings. However, a pinch-hit three-run home run from Eduardo Nunez off of reliever Alex Wood was the exclamation point for the Red Sox as they held off the Dodgers 8-4 to take game one of the World Series.

Despite being billed as the battle of the aces, neither pitcher brought their best stuff. Kershaw got knocked around early and watched the Dodgers fall in an early hole. For the Red Sox, Chris Sale started strong but the pitch count quickly caught up to him. Sale’s final line was four innings pitched, five hits, three runs, two walks and seven strikeouts in a no-decision.

Mookie Betts got things started for the Red Sox with a leadoff single and stolen base in the first. He scored the first run on an Andrew Benintendi RBI double in the next at-bat. The first of his four hits on the evening. Benintendi scored later in the inning on the first of J.D. Martinez’ two RBI’s. In addition, Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers drove in a run apiece. In addition, the Red Sox continued to be rake with two outs. Five of their eight runs were scored with two outs. That includes the Eduardo Nunez three-run home run in the seventh.

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For the Dodgers, Manny Machado did a majority of the damage at the plate. The former Oriole drove in three of the Dodgers four runs on the evening. Veteran Matt Kemp drove in the other run with a solo shot off Chris Sale in the top of the third. Justin Turner collected three hits and scored a run for the Dodgers.

After Sale was chased, the Red Sox used five relievers before they turned to closer Craig Kimbrel. The combination of Matt Barnes, Joe Kelly, Ryan Brasier, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Nathan Eovaldi threw four innings and allowed just one run on three hits. When Kimbrel’s number was called in the ninth, he delivered. Kimbrel didn’t allow a hit and struck out a pair in a dominated ninth inning to close out the game. The earlier postseason struggles seemed to be a thing of the past.

The Red Sox will now send David Price to the mound in game two as they look to take a 2-0 series lead before heading to Los Angeles for games 3-5. Price is coming off a strong game five performance in the series clinching win over the Houston Astros.

– Ian Glendon is the Editor-In-Chief of Full Press Coverage. He covers the NFL. Like and follow on and Facebook.

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