At one point this weekend, the Angels were in sole possession of first place. Since then, the Angels dropped to only a half game out but the A’s roll into town for a huge three game series. It’ll also be interesting to see what happens here at the trading deadline so it should be a fun day.
Rookie Howie Kendrick got the better of Red Sox rookie starter Jon Lester on Friday. Kendrick went three for five with a run and three RBIs in the 8-3 beatdown. Mike Napoli scored twice and Kelvim Escobar threw a nice game and picked up the win. He gave up two runs on six hits and two walks with eight strikeouts in six innings.
On Saturday, the Angels and Red Sox were the Fox game of the week, and boy was it a good one (outside of the end result). The Angels led for almost the entire game until the Red Sox scored three runs in the eighth. The game went into extra frames when the Red Sox finally won it with David Ortiz’s (who else) walk off RBI single in the bottom of the eleventh. Jered Weaver’s winning streak is still intact with his no decision and it was Scott Shields who blew the game.
The Angels got back on track yesterday behind John Lackey, who improved to 10-6. Not his best outing, Lackey gave up four runs (three earned) on nine hits and two walks with six strikeouts in six innings. Foru different Angels had two RBIs in the 10-4 win and Orlando Cabrera, Vladimir Guerrero and Juan Rivera all homered in the third inning.
Game one against Oakland is tonight. Ervin Santana will go up against Danny Haren.
