BoSox send Gonzalez, Beckett, Crawford to Dodgers

BOSTON (AP) - The Los Angeles Dodgers are stocking up for the stretch run with some new, expensive players who couldn’t help the Boston Red Sox make it to the postseason this year or last.

The Dodgers acquired first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, pitcher Josh Beckett and injured outfielder Carl Crawford from Boston on Saturday, hoping to boost their playoff hopes by taking on the underperforming and high-priced stars who failed to thrive in a fractious Red Sox clubhouse.

Boston also sent infielder Nick Punto and about $11 million in cash to Los Angeles in the nine-player trade that was the biggest in Dodgers history. In return, the Red Sox got first baseman James Loney, pitcher Allen Webster, infielder Ivan DeJesus Jr. and two players to be named while shedding more than $250 million in salaries through 2018.

“We understand that you have to spend money to be good in this league,” said Magic Johnson, the former NBA star who is part of the rich new Dodgers ownership group that has dramatically revamped their roster in the last month.

“When we came in, we made it clear that we want to build the Dodgers back to what they once were,” Dodgers president Stan Kasten said.

Gonzalez hit a three-run homer in his first at-bat for the Dodgers, while the depleted Red Sox blew a six-run lead to the Kansas City Royals and lost 10-9 in 12 innings Saturday night.

Mauro Gomez, filling in for Gonzalez at first base, had four hits, including his first major league homer. But Aaron Cook, a late substitute for Beckett, gave up three runs before recording a single out, and after Boston rallied to take a 9-3 lead the bullpen couldn’t hold it.

Kansas City scored six in the seventh, all with two outs.

“It was frustrating,” Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said. “We couldn’t get that third out in the seventh inning. Had about four tries.”

Los Angeles, two games behind the San Francisco in the NL West, has in the past month acquired shortstop Hanley Ramirez, outfielder Shane Victorino, starter Joe Blanton and reliever Brandon League. The latest deal comes less than a week before the Aug. 31 deadline for players to be eligible for the postseason.

“It’s just exciting,” Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp said. “Everybody wants to win, and the guys up there are really making a statement and showing us that they want to win just as bad as we do.”

For the Red Sox, 13 1/2 games back in the AL East, the trade signaled a concession for 2012 and a chance to rebuild without hefty contracts given during an undisciplined foray into free agency that, Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington conceded, has not worked out.

“It gives us an opportunity to build the next great Red Sox team,” Cherington said. “We just felt like to get to be a team we believe in and a team the fans deserve, to sustain winning year after year, it was going to take something more than cosmetic changes. It was going to take something bold.”

The Red Sox will save $261 million in salaries through 2018, plus a few million more for the rest of this season. Boston will send $11 million to the Dodgers as part of the deal, according to a baseball official with knowledge of the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity because the financial terms were not public.

“The bottom line is we haven’t won enough games. That goes back to last September,” Cherington said. “We just haven’t performed on the field. As a team we haven’t performed. … This is not about the four players we gave up _ anything particularly they did wrong. We just didn’t perform as a team.”

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