Dodgers use two-run eighth inning to put away Red Sox

Teoscar Hernandez hit a two-run home run to help the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Boston Red Sox 5-2 Friday in the opener of a three-game series.

After Freddie Freeman singled to open the eighth inning, Hernandez homered against Boston reliever Jorge Alcala to extend the Dodgers' lead to 5-2. It was his 15th home run of the season. Hernandez drove in three of Los Angeles' five runs.

Freeman, Will Smith and Andy Pages each collected two hits in the victory, but Shohei Ohtani failed to homer for the sixth straight game. Ohtani went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.

Emmet Sheehan (2-1) pitched the first five innings for Los Angeles. He surrendered two runs on three hits, struck out five and walked two. The Dodgers' bullpen provided four scoreless innings, including a scoreless ninth from Ben Casparius.

The Red Sox had runners on first and second with two outs in the ninth, but Casparius retired Rob Refsnyder on a grounder to second to end the game. It was his first major league save.

Boston starting pitcher Brayan Bello (6-5) was pulled with one out in the sixth. He gave up three runs on six hits, struck out five and walked two.

The Red Sox were limited to five hits: doubles by Connor Wong, Alex Bregman and Trevor Story, and singles by Jarren Duran and Masataka Yoshida.

The Dodgers grabbed a 3-0 lead by scoring a run in the second and two in the third. Pages made it 1-0 when he scored from third on Tommy Edman's infield single. It was 2-0 after Ohtani scored when Hernandez drew a bases-loaded walk, and Smith scored on a Pages sacrifice fly to give Los Angeles a 3-0 advantage.

The Red Sox sliced their deficit to 3-2 by scoring twice in the bottom of the third. Wong doubled and scored on a Duran single, and then Bregman drove in Duran with a double.

--Field Level Media