BOSTON — Clayton Kershaw had pitched 346 major league games in 29 ballparks from Miami to Sydney, but never here at Fenway Park, where Babe Ruth once pitched, Neil Diamond is revered, and the family histories of visiting players are openly discussed. Kershaw felt the full-on Fenway effect the minute he took to the bullpen mound to warm up for World Series Game 1 Tuesday night.
“Brutal. Pretty brutal,” said Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, making his first trip to the Fens since 2010. Not much has changed. The rubber of the pitching mound in the visitors’ bullpen is but three feet from the bleacher seats.