Jonathan Broxton is asked to preserve a tie — but can’t
With two on and two out in the ninth inning of a tied game, Manager Joe Torre phoned the bullpen.
He wanted Jonathan Broxton to enter the game early to send the game into extra innings.
Broxton couldn’t.
With a 1-1 count against Dustin Pedroia, he tried to hit the outside part of the plate and watched Pedroia send it into right field. Andre Ethier’s throw was wide and Daniel Nava made it home to lift the Boston Red Sox to a 5-4, walk-off victory over the Dodgers.
Was the pitch where Broxton wanted to throw it?
“I don’t know,” he said. “I haven’t seen it.”
Saddled with the loss was Ronald Belisario, who walked fellow Venezuelan Marco Scutaro to push Nava into scoring position.
“That happens,” Belisario said. “It’s part of the game.”
Manny and the Monster
A non-factor in the Dodgers’ loss on Friday, Manny Ramirez cleared the fabled left-field wall at Fenway Park in the sixth inning to close his team’s deficit to 3-2. The towering solo homer against Tim Wakefield didn’t have a significant effect on the Boston crowd, which reacted with a mix of mild boos and polite applause.
“That got us back in the game,” said Matt Kemp, whose sacrifice fly in the seventh inning tied the score, 4-4.
Ramirez also reached base on a second-inning single and stole second base. He later scored on a single by Garret Anderson.
The steal was Ramirez’s first since Aug. 29, 2008. The last time he stole a base at Fenway Park was on Sept. 15, 2004.
Anderson heating up
Anderson appears to be breaking out of his season-long slump.
Starting in left field, he was three for four with a double, run batted in and run scored. He is seven for his last 15 with two home runs and four RBIs.
With the Dodgers’ next stop being in Anaheim, Anderson was asked if he expected 30 reporters waiting for him there as there were for Ramirez in Boston.
“Ummm, no,” Anderson said. “I don’t even know if there are 30 reporters in Anaheim.”
Another new experience
Hiroki Kuroda is 35 years old, and he had never seen anything like the Green Monster until the Dodgers arrived at Fenway Park on Friday.
Nothing in Japan is even remotely comparable, he said.
“In Japan, all of the stadiums are pretty much the same,” he said.
Although fields in Japan vary in size, their shapes are nearly identical to one another. The heights of the fences and the locations of the bullpens are pretty much the same. The same is true of the seating for the fans.
Monasterios to the DL
Instead of sending rookie Travis Schlichting back to triple A, the Dodgers moved Carlos Monasterios to the 15-day disabled list to clear a space on the roster for Vicente Padilla.
Monasterios has a blood blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand and a split nail on the index finger. Perhaps more important, his earned-run average has soared from 2.27 to 3.88 over his last two starts, both losses.
Short hops
Hong-Chih Kuo struck out David Ortiz to get out of the seventh inning. Left-handed batters are 0 for 22 with 11 strikeouts against him this season.… Chad Billingsley will throw off a mound Tuesday or Wednesday.
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