While the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have won 8-of-9 against the Boston Red Sox this season, the Red Sox have eliminated the Angels from the playoffs twice in the past 4 years. As per the norm, you throw out the regular season records and what’s happened in the past in the playoffs and go from there. Although you do know the Angels playoff exits handed to them by the Red Sox will be on the back of their minds.
As we did last year, let’s take a look back at our game recaps from all of the Red Sox vs. Angels games this season.
Trailing 5-1 in the 4th inning, the casual fan would think the Boston Red Sox would have no chance of coming back against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. What the casual fan doesn’t know is that this Red Sox team has been coming back in games all season.
And tonight was no different as the 1-2 punch of Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia plus a 2-run homer by Kevin Youkilis helped the Red Sox overcome that deficit and beat the Angels 7-6 sending the 37,982 fans at the Fens home with a smile. The win was the 6th straight for the Sox.
Another night, another emergency starter for the Boston Red Sox as Daisuke Matsuzaka fell victim to the flu bug. Jon Lester stepped in for Dice-K and threw the ball but unfortunately for the Red Sox it wasn’t good enough as the Angels used the long ball to win 5-4 in front of a record crowd of 38,172 at Fenway Park. The loss for the Red Sox ended their 6-game winning streak and is only the 3rd loss of the season at home.
The Los Angeles Angels couldn’t do much of anything with Boston rookie starter Justin Masterson. They just had to wait to get him out of the game and get into the usually solid Boston bullpen. Los Angeles got four runs in the seventh off of a trio of Red Sox pitchers to overcome a 3-1 deficit and turn it into a late 7-5 win over Boston Thursday afternoon at sunny Fenway Park.
Today was the third consecutive day that the Red Sox had a different starting pitcher than the regularly scheduled starter. Because of the flu bug working it’s way through the clubhouse it has caused the Sox to scratch both Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka from their scheduled starts and push up Jon Lester a day. This forced Lester to work on short rest and then they dipped into their farm system for starts from David Pauley and today’s major league debut of Masterson.
Garrett Anderson went 4-for-4 with 5 RBIs to help lead the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim past the Boston Red Sox in front of 44,260 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. The loss for the Red Sox coupled with a Tampa Bay Rays win leaves the Red Sox a ½ game back in the AL East.
Erick Aybar’s pinch-hit bases loaded triple was the difference as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim defeated the Boston Red Sox for the second straight day, this time 4-2 in front of 44,005 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. The loss for the Red Sox was their 9th in their last 11 road games and drops them to 1 game behind the Rays pending the outcome of their game tonight.
Casey Kotchman’s 2-run double was the difference this evening as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim sent the Red Sox to their third straight loss with a 5-3 win in front of 44,164 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. The loss was also the Red Sox 5th straight on the road and their 10th in their last 12 road games.
At one point early in this game the Boston Red Sox were in the drivers seat and Daisuke Matsuzaka was cruising towards his 12th win of the year. But then the sixth inning happened as Matsuzaka couldn’t record an out and in the blink of an eye the Los Angeles Angels grabbed five runs off of Matsuzaka with out recording an out. They’d add another against reliever Justin Masterson and go on to record a 7-5 win Monday at Fenway Park. The win was the sixth in row by the Angels over the Red Sox since April.
John Lackey no-hit the Boston Red Sox for 8 1/3 innings tonight as the Los Angeles Angels beat then 6-2 in front of 38,110 at the Fens. The win for the Angels was their 7th straight and 7th straight over the Red Sox as well. The loss also drops the Red Sox to 2 games behind the Rays for 1st place in the AL East.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim continue to show why they are the best team in baseball right now as they came in Fenway Park and swept the Boston Red Sox in 9-2 win tonight behind 4 hits and 4 RBIs from Garrett Anderson. The loss moves the Red Sox to three games behind the Tampa Bay Rays and just one game ahead of the New York Yankees in the AL East.
Pending the outcome of tonight’s Minnesota Twins/Chicago White Sox game, the Red Sox could be tied with the Twins for the lead in the wild card race.
Whether or not all this Manny Ramirez business is a problem remains to be seen. What can be seen is the fact the Red Sox are not playing good baseball.
