Dodgers With the Most Experience Against Red Sox Pitching

The World Series matchup is set, and the Los Angeles Dodgers will take on the Boston Red Sox beginning Tuesday evening. These two teams have played each other only three times since 2016, so the exposure is limited on both sides. However, a few Dodgers hitters have the distinct advantage of experience against Boston pitching.

Manny Machado

Manny has the advantage of coming from the American League East, so he has plenty of experience playing in Boston. Machado had close to 300 AB’s in total against Boston with about half of them coming in Fenway Park. Machado is a career 280 hitter with 14 homeruns against Boston and has been even better at Fenway. While playing there, he has a 292 batting average over the course of 168 AB’s.

Machado also has had great success against current Red Sox pitching. He has faced off against Rick Porcello in 38 at-bats and has 13 hits off of him, good for a 342 batting average lifetime. Manny has also taken Porcello deep twice. Against Chris Sale, Machado is 6-19(.316 BA) and has gone deep once. Manny has really had his way with David Price though, even if his average doesn’t exactly show it. In 41 career at-bats, Machado has five home runs off of the lefty.

Brian Dozier

Dozier has seen plenty of Red Sox pitching in his past but has not found a ton of success. In 127 career at-bats against Boston, he carries just a 288 average, but does have three home runs to his name.  His real success comes against particular matchups. Between Chris Sale and David Price, Dozier has gone deep five times in 86 at-bats through his career.

Dozier has also done pretty well against Eduardo Rodriguez, who has been one of the few left-handed pitchers in Boston’s bullpen. He has faced him nine times and has four hits, including two home runs. All told, he has 11 home runs and is hitting 250 in his career against current Boston pitchers.

Outlook

There is a reason why the Dodgers front office went out and landed these two guys. It was mostly to account for left-handed pitching, but it has worked out very well with the World Series opponent as well.