Monday night’s game between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim saw an offensive outburst by the Red Sox. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, it was pitching and defense for the Red Sox. And on Thursday night, it was back to the offensive outbursts for the Red Sox.
Victor Martinez had two hits and four RBIs to help the Red Sox to an 11-6 win over the Angels in front of 37,639 at Fenway Park.
It’s the first four-game sweep of the Angels for the Red Sox since 1967 at Fenway Park as they improve to 15-14. It’s the seventh straight loss for the Angels who fall to 12-18.
The Red Sox were trailing 4-0 in the 3rd inning against Scott Kazmir and the Angels until a lead-off walk to Dustin Pedroia and a two-run homer by Victor Martinez. For VMart, it was his first home run since April 6th.
But the big blow to the Angels and Kazmir came in the 5th inning.
Marco Scutaro led off with a single and went to third on a Pedroia double. They both came home as VMart went the opposite way down the line for a 2-run double to tie it up at 4. Kazmir then sandwiched walks to Kevin Youkilis and J.D. Drew around a Mike Lowell line out to shortstop. The walk to Drew ended Kazmir’s evening on the bump.
Brian Stokes took over and struck out Adrian Beltre. Terry Francona pinch-hit for Bill Hall with Jeremy Hermida and Hermida rewarded Tito with a 2-run single to make it 6-4. Darnell McDonald followed with a double to score Drew to push the lead to 7-4.
The Angels would get it back to 7-6 on a 2-run homer by Mike Napoli but the Red Sox would add four in the 6th to provide the final margin of victory.
Daisuke Matsuzaka started this one for the Red Sox and picked up the win despite his awful first inning. The Angels watched the first fourteen pitches he threw before a Torii Hunter single made it 2-0. He would give up two more runs in the inning but settled down after that.
Matsuzaka worked 5 1/3 innings, allowing five runs on five hits and three walks with three strikeouts on 92 pitches. Manny Delcarmen worked an inning and allowed a run on a hit and a walk with a strikeout. Hideki Okajima was perfect in 2/3 of an inning and Ramon Ramirez gave up two hits and a walk with three strikeouts in two innings.
Hermida finished the game with the one hit and three RBIs while Dustin Pedroia had two hits. Adrian Beltre added two hits and an RBI while Drew had a hit and RBI on a bases loaded walk.
The Red Sox will now welcome the New York Yankees to the Fens for a 3-game weekend set. Phil Hughes and Josh Beckett will square off in game one tomorrow night at 7:10 p.m.
