Members of the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers get a feel for the L.A. Coliseum before last night’s scheduled contest. More than 115,000 fans were expected, which would be the largest crowd to watch a Major League Baseball game.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

LOS ANGELES — This wasn’t a baseball game the Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers staged last night at the Los Angeles Coliseum; it was like a full-blown production.

“I’d say it’s more of an event than an exhibition game,” countered Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “Our guys get a lot thrown at us during the year and they do a great job with it.”

But never had the Sox experienced anything like this. Playing before the biggest crowd ever to watch a Major League Baseball game, the Red Sox dressed at Dodger Stadium before making the crosstown bus trip here.

When they arrived, they entered, en masse, through the Roman arch situated behind the far end zone and posed for photos on the top step. It made them feel like ancient warriors.

“It had a real gladiator feel,” said Coco Crisp, himself a Los Angeles native. “You walk in and feel like you should be holding a sword.” “There’s a lot of tradition here,” said Bryan Corey, surveying the scene, though admittedly, not much of it is baseball-related. “This place is a landmark.”

Though the Dodgers played here for their first four years after moving from Brooklyn, the Coliseum is more closely associated with football — home to USC, several Super Bowls including the first, and for a while, the Los Angeles Raiders — and Olympics, in 1932 and more recently, 1984.

“To see how big this place is,” marveled Corey, who grew up in nearby Thousand Oaks, “and to know that every seat is going to be full and then some — it’s impressive. It will be interesting to see how many Dodgers fans will be here, how many Red Sox fans and how many baseball fans in general.

“I hope I get in [to the game] tonight. It would be cool, regardless of the nearby left-field wall [just 201 feet from the plate]. To have an opportunity to play in front of all these people? That would be cool. It’s one thing to be at a game like this; it’s another to be in it.”

Corey’s parents now live in Arizona and couldn’t make last night’s game, but he still left a half-dozen tickets for families and friends.

“It could have been a lot more,” said Corey, “but I didn’t want to deal with it. Not like Coco — I think he’s got a whole section here.”

Francona was struck by just how enormous the Coliseum is.

“And that’s without all the people,” he noted in mid-afternoon, before the gates were open.

The Dodgers were expecting a crowd in excess of 115,000, for the benefit of their new foundation, Think Cure, a sort of West Coast-version of the Jimmy Fund.

Both teams last night were dealing with less-than-typical conditions. Francona and general manager Theo Epstein walked the field before the game and found it somewhat wanting.

“There were some dips and ruts,” said Francona.

It helped that Major League Baseball brought in its own grounds crew to make sure the pitcher’s mound was properly constructed. But no amount of adjustment could get around the short porch in left, or the makeshift dugouts in foul territory, which more resembled makeshift party tents.

Foul territory was almost nonexistent, sacrificed for additional seats which were installed years ago when the track was removed.

Still, Alex Cora, mindful of the Olympiads and the track-and-field events once staged here, said: “It made me feel like running 100 meters,” he said.

Instead, in no time, the Sox grabbed bats and took aim at the inviting left field screen.

During pre-game batting practice, hitters playfully took aim at the screen. Jason Varitek — hitting left-handed — and Kevin Youkilis sent shots over the 60-foot screen. Bobby Kielty said, perhaps only half-jokingly, that he was going to play in center and let shortstop Julio Lugo handle anything that was hit over shortstop, since that covered only another 60 or so feet.

When the Dodgers took the field, they changed Kielty’s plan a bit, stationing outfielder Andre Ethier as a rover in a short-field role, right behind second base

“My goal,” said Kielty, “is to throw someone out at first base.”

For all the players, the goal was to contribute to a good cause, have fun and maybe, just maybe, keep the opposition to single-digits.

“I told [Tim] Wakefield,” said Francona, “that we were going to treat this like a horse at the Kentucky Derby — put the blinders on and ignore the surroundings.”

smcadam@projo.com