Without leaving a state, the Red Sox will travel to another world Friday.
It’s hard to exaggerate the Oz-like journey from the sepia of Sutter Health Park, the very temporary home of the Athletics, to the vivid brilliance of a weekend in Dodger Stadium. The Sox will be going from a minor league park — despite a rich baseball tradition in Sacramento, it is a disgrace that MLB and the Athletics chose to stage big league games in a Triple-A park for three years — to one of the sport’s shrines.
“There’s probably four stadiums that are top tier in the big leagues, and LA is for sure one of them,” said Sox pitcher Patrick Sandoval, who described Dodger Stadium as “the biggest of the big leagues.” And [Sutter Health Park] is . . . ” he paused, “an OK minor league stadium. I mean it’s a huge jump [between parks] for sure.”
As impressive as the venue is, the team that resides there might be even more impressive.
Read more from Alex Speier at BostonGlobe.com/Sports. | 
