BOSTON — Able to overcome a pair of rocky innings early, Emmet Sheehan locked in and helped the Dodgers pick off a 5-2 win over the Red Sox in the series opener at Fenway Park on Friday night.
Pitching down the road from where he played collegiately at Boston College, the right-hander logged five innings to earn the win, ringing up five strikeouts while allowing two runs on three hits and two walks.
“It was pretty cool,” said Sheehan of getting his first start at Fenway. “I had a lot of people, friends and family in the stands. It was awesome. I’ve been dreaming about pitching here for a long time.”
“He gave us everything we needed, and we needed every bit of it,” noted manager Dave Roberts in the wake of the win.
On the other end of the Dodgers’ staff, making the night a New England full circle, Connecticut-native and UConn product Ben Casparius, who had been sidelined with a calf cramp, came on in the ninth to record his first career save.
“It’s pretty cool, especially to do it behind Emmet. I love that,” said the rookie reliever. “It was special and a great way to start the road trip.”
“I’ve been with Ben since we got drafted, so it was really cool,” added Sheehan. “I think he was an actual Red Sox fan growing up, so it might have been a little cooler for him.”
Things didn’t start well for Sheehan, who walked two batters in the first inning, including leadoff hitter Jarren Duran on 10 pitches. Sheehan was able to work himself out of trouble in the first, but needed 32 pitches to do so.
Sheehan made up for it with a six-pitch, 1-2-3 second inning, before allowing three straight hits to open up the third inning, helping Boston cut Los Angeles’ lead to 3-2.
That was as close as Sheehan would allow the game to get. He would go on to strike out the side in the fourth and then retired the Sox, 1-2-3, in a six-pitch fifth inning to conclude his night.
“I definitely didn’t have my best stuff or execution today, honestly,” Sheehan admitted. “But you just got to work with what you have sometimes out there. I felt it went pretty well towards the end.”
“I thought he managed his emotions really well, competed really well and made pitches when he needed to,” added Roberts.
Tommy Edman’s RBI single gave Sheehan a run of support in the second inning and Los Angeles gave him two more runs in the third, despite having only one extra-base hit over the first five frames.
Teoscar Hernández, who was 1-for-3 with a bases-loaded walk and three RBIs, launched a Statcast-projected 415-foot, two-run homer to center field in the eighth inning to provide insurance runs for the club.
“Teo to take a walk, walking in a run, was big,” said Roberts. “Then — after the strikeout — to come back and hit a homer was good.”
With Blake Snell’s return, as well as the July 31 Trade Deadline looming, the Dodgers pitching rotation is going to be slim a slot, leading many to believe that Sheehan, or Sunday’s starter Dustin May, will be the odd man out.
The case that Sheehan built for himself seems a little rocky, though in the end, he did put the team in position to win. With the win, the right-hander moved to 2-1 on the year with a 4.22 ERA over five games, four of them starts.
Asked before the game if this series was an audition for a rotation slot, Roberts stated, “Yeah, I think so. I think that’s fair and that’s honest. So, we’ll see. It’s up to them to go out there and pitch well and force our hand as far as decisions.”
