Angels Outlast Red Sox, 6-4, To Get Rare Series Win

The Los Angeles Angels displayed some rare home run power as they beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-3, to get an even rarer series win. 

This was a strange game that started in a very un-Angels kind of way, as Zach Neto got the Halos on the board with a three-run homer in the third off Sox starter Jake Bennett to get LA off to an early lead. 

Jose Siri followed up later in the inning with a two-run bomb to make many of us check our settings to make sure we were actually watching the Angels as their lead ballooned to 5-0. 

It got bigger in the fourth, too, as Denzer Guzman clobberd another Bennett meatball out to left, which made the lead 6-0.

Angels starter Ryan Johnson wasn’t at his best, but he was more than good enough as he shut out Boston for the first four frames, but after that he, too, was affected by gopher ball disease. Roman Anthony got Boston on the board with two-run homer in the fifth, and Wilyer Abreu hit a solo shot in the sixth to cut the Halos lead in half, and suddenly it was a ball game again. 

But the Angels bullpen did some solid work in the seventh and eighth to keep the score at 6-3, with Ryan Watson, Tyler Saucedo and Sammy Natera combining to get six outs. 

Closer Ben Joyce did have an adventure save, though, as the Red Sox rallied to score in the ninth. Joyce gave up a walk to Jarren Duran sandwiched between a strikeout and a fly ball, and Nate Eaton singled to bring home Duran and make it 6-4. 

That brought up Anthony again as the potential tying run, but Joyce got him on a fly ball to right to notch his fourth save of the season and give the Angels the game win as well as the series victory.

If you’re thinking it’s been a long time since the Angels have won back-to-back games, that’s because it has been. The specific dates are August 11-13, when the Angels swept the Texas Rangers in Anaheim. 

The Angels are now at 3-3 for the road trip, and they’ve won three of their last five, which is a successful combination for the Halos given how their season has gone. They’ll get a day off tomorrow, then take on the Washington Nationals in DC over the weekend.