Red Sox News & Notes – 4/25

Carl Crawford(notes) #13 of the Boston Red Sox celebrates with teammates after the game with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on April 24, 2011 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California.

Nine games ago, the Boston Red Sox found themselves with a 2-10 record. Nothing was clicking. The starting pitching and the hitting weren’t there yet. But over the last nine games, the starting pitching for the Red Sox has been great and the hitting while suspect at times, has been coming through when needed.

That story remained the same on Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium of Anaheim as John Lackey fired off eight scoreless innings against his former club, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, in a 7-0 win. Lackey has now faced his former team four times and has come away a winner all four times. He’s allowed just eight runs against them in 29.1 innings (2.45 ERA).

As Steve pointed out last night, it’s been the starting pitching carrying this team. And right now, no one in the starting rotation wants to mess this streak up.

“Sure, there’s definitely a sense of not wanting to be the guy to stop the streak,” Lackey said. “It’s a pretty good run, but it’s not unexpected. We’ve got some guys here with some pretty good track records.”

“I think it obviously helps to see somebody do it. You just try to follow it and not screw it up,” Jon Lester said after Sunday’s game. “We’re just executing pitches right now. That’s the main thing. We’re very confident. We just have to stay healthy. We’ve been in this position before with a good rotation and weren’t able to stay healthy, which didn’t get us anywhere. So if everyone keeps taking their turn everything should take care of itself.”

During the four-game sweep of the Angels, the only starting pitcher to give up any runs was Josh Beckett, who allowed a two-run homer to Torii Hunter.

The Red Sox hitters made things a little easier for Lackey on Sunday as well. It didn’t hurt that they gave him a 3-0 lead to work with before he even came to the mound.

Adrian Gonzalez brought in Jacoby Ellsbury on a double after Ellsbury had led off the inning with a double. David Ortiz brought in Gonzalez with a single and Mike Cameron brought in Kevin Youkilis on a fielder’s choice.

Carl Crawford was all smiles in the 6th inning when he hit his first home run in a Red Sox uniform. He’s really been swinging the bat well as of late and added another two hits on Sunday after having two on Saturday night. As he continues to get more comfortable at the plate, you can see why the Red Sox gave him the big contract. Yes I know we’ve seen him wreak havoc against us for the past year.

This great run by the Red Sox has moved them up in the standings to third place, just a 1/2 game behind the Tampa Bay Rays for second place and 3.5 games behind the Yankees for first. With just a week left in the month of April, it’s quite possible the Red Sox could get out of the month with at least a .500 record or maybe even better.

Now after that 2-10 start, I’m pretty sure nobody envisioned that.

The Red Sox are off today so look for the pitching matchups with the Baltimore Orioles in a while. But for now, enjoy the overnight links from the media by clicking on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

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Lackey helps Sox stay on a nice roll [Boston Globe]

Headed back to .500 on the wings of Angels [Boston Globe]

New spin on things [Boston Globe]

It was a blast from the past [Boston Globe]

John Lackey turns in latest gem in Red Sox’ 7-0 win over Angels [Boston Herald]

Tasting Salty success [Boston Herald]

Carl Crawford’s bat revival continues [Boston Herald]

Momentous mound men [Boston Herald]

Arms key to Sox’ revival [Boston Herald]

Red Sox stay hot with win over Angels, 7-0 [CSNNE.com]

Notes: Lackey motivated by being skipped in rotation [CSNNE.com]