Red Sox 8, Dodgers 1
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Shane Victorino and Mike Napoli homered to back a complete-game three-hitter from Jake Peavy as visiting Boston took the rubber match of a three-game series from Los Angeles.
Napoli and Xander Bogaerts each added an RBI double and Dustin Pedroia hit a sacrifice fly for the Red Sox, who moved one game in front of the Tampa Bay Rays for first place in the American League East.
On the one-year anniversary of the trade that sent him from Boston to the Dodgers, Adrian Gonzalez hit a solo home run. Nick Punto and Carl Crawford - fellow members of that trade - combined to go 1-for-8 with three strikeouts as Los Angeles suffered its first series loss since June 14-16 at Pittsburgh and had its lead in the NL West remain at 9 1/2 games over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Napoli’s ground-rule double plated Victorino in the first inning and the Red Sox manufactured a run in third on a single, a steal, a sacrifice bunt and Pedroia’s fly. Bogaerts recorded his first career extra-base hit and RBI in the fourth off Chris Capuano (4-7) before Gonzalez’s blast to center in the next half-inning gave the Dodgers their first hit.
Peavy (10-5) wound up striking out five and walking one in his second complete game of the season to improve to 14-2 lifetime against Los Angeles. Boston picked up some insurance in the sixth on Saltalamacchia’s two-run blast to left and made it a five-run gap on Victorino’s shot to left in the seventh before Napoli‘s two-run homer in the ninth capped the scoring.
GAME NOTEBOOK: The Dodgers have dropped back-to-back games for only the second time since the All-Star break. They will try to avoid their first three-game losing streak since June 8-10 when they host the Chicago Cubs on Monday. … Red Sox RHP Clay Buchholz (shoulder) made his first rehab start on Sunday for Class A Lowell and did not make it out of the first inning. He needed 38 pitches to record two outs and was charged with three runs (one earned) on one hits and three walks. … Los Angeles’ streak of 18 straight series without a loss (14-0-4) marked a franchise record.