No pitcher defined the 2010s decade like Clayton Kershaw. No current starter is mowing down hitters like Garrett Crochet. The former is slated for his 441st MLB start this weekend; the latter is set to make No. 54, all of which have come since 2024. There’s a lot to appreciate about this upcoming series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox, but Saturday’s national TV duel of the lefties feels like must-see stuff.
How to watch Los Angeles Dodgers at Boston Red Sox
Viewing guide
The visitors are once again atop the NL West, a near-constant across this contemporary stretch of Major League Baseball. The defending World Series crowners lead the National League in home runs, RBIs and runs per game. But that belies the Dodgers’ awful July — they are 7-11 this month with a minus-24 run differential, which is just about unthinkable given their ultra-stacked lineup. Even worse, three of those seven wins came over the White Sox, far and away the worst non-Rockies team in the league. However, L.A. did just take two of three from the Twins, capped by Wednesday afternoon’s walk-off win. Do your thing, Freddie Freeman:
Freddie! Freddie! Freddie!
Yesterday’s Vital Play of the Game presented by @UCLAHealth. pic.twitter.com/e684UXGfgL
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 24, 2025
Unlike their guests, the Red Sox do not lead their division, coming into Friday’s action behind the Blue Jays and Yankees in the AL East. Also unlike the Dodgers, the Sox are ripping it up in July with a 13-5 mark and a plus-37 scoring margin. Four of those five losses came on the road against top-tier opponents in the Cubs and Phillies; one of them came from the first walk-off catcher’s interference call since 1971. This is a weird sport with suitably weird outcomes, but the team still looks like it’s rounded a corner at large.
Boston’s 10-game winning streak from the Fourth of July through the All-Star break revived their season, a campaign marked by multiple hyped-up prospect debuts and one eminent saga at first base.
The recent good energies will be challenged by Shohei Ohtani, an otherworldly artist of the diamond arts. The incumbent NL MVP has swatted a home run in five straight games, dating back to last Saturday. Ohtani paces the NL in (take a deep breath) runs, total bases, homers, slugging, OPS, offensive wins above replacement and championship win probability added.
Fenway will also be something of an estranged family reunion or an alumni get-together. Boston’s probable for Sunday, Walker Buehler, was a World Series hero for last year’s Dodgers. L.A.’s Mookie Betts won an MVP and a championship ring in Boston, before a franchise-defining trade sent him over to Chavez Ravine. And the Red Sox’ newly acquired All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman was an archvillain in the contentious Dodgers-Astros rivalry.
So, yes … much to look forward to. The fulcrum is still that Saturday Kershaw-Crochet matchup. Kershaw holds an impressive 3.27 ERA in his age-37 season, and is still glowing from recording his historic 3,000th K. Crochet, MLB’s strikeout leader as of Thursday night, is in the 99 percentile for pitching run value, with a gnarly cutter and a rapidly improving sinker. The lefty-on-lefty headliner is billed as Fox’s “Baseball Night in America,” though select Midwestern households will get the network’s alternate game of Kansas City Royals versus Cleveland Guardians.
Current playoff odds for each team’s division
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(Photo of Garrett Crochet: Paul Rutherford / Getty Images)
