LOS ANGELES — If there were step-by-step instructions to beating the Boston Red Sox in the postseason, No. 1 on the list is “score first.”

That’s just what the Los Angeles Dodgers did in Game 3 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium when Joc Pederson blasted a third-inning homer into the right-field bullpen for a 1-0 lead.

It was the first time in the series the Dodgers had scored first and the first time in a while the Red Sox hadn’t scored first in a postseason game. The Red Sox were 9-0 this postseason when scoring first — which is every game in the ALDS, ALCS and the first two games of this series.

So yeah, scoring first is the No. 1 ingredient in their recipe to success. The only two games the Red Sox haven’t won this postseason are the ones in which they didn’t score first. The last time that happened was Game 1 of the ALCS.

This was also some immediate dividends for the Dodgers changing up their lineup in Game 3. Pederson had been on the bench in Games 1 and 2 with two Red Sox lefties on the mound. He got the start against Rick Porcello, creating a more powerful Dodgers lineup, and it paid off.

For Pederson, it’s another World Series homer, his fourth in two years, and it already puts him in some pretty good company.

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Mike Oz is a writer at Yahoo Sports. Contact him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz

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