By JB Ellis
On Sunday April 7, a Sunny beautiful day in Anaheim, California the 5-3 Los Angeles Angels are hosting the 6-3 Boston Red Sox in the series finale.
The teams split the 1st two games the Red Sox winning Friday 8-6 and the Angels rebounding with a 2-1 triumph Saturday Night.
The stands looked mostly filled on a beautiful day at Angel Stadium with 38,917 in attendance.
Today was Little League Day as during the pregame there was a parade of 6000 little leaguers who paraded around the field.
As they all passed the Angels dugout where I was standing you could see their excitement when they found Mike Trout’s cubby with his batting helmet. Logan O’hoppe signed baseballs for some lucky little leaguers that were seated in the dugout.
Once the game started at 1:08 PST there was not much noise til the top of the 3rd inning when the Red Sox chased starter Chase Silseth for three solo homers after striking out Reese McGuire, the wheels came off as David Hamilton hit a home run to right field. Silseth then got Duran to fly out to Center before back to back solo home runs by Rafael Devers and Tyler O’Neil before he got Triston Casas to fly out to end the damage.
The Angels tried to respond back quickly when Anthony Rendon led off with a double in the bottom of the 3rd advanced to 3rd on a Nolan Schanuel ground out. Mike Trout then walked and stole second giving the Angels two runners in scoring position with one out. Taylor Ward proceeded to Strike out and Brandon Drury grounded out to end the threat.
The game would remain 3-0 til the top of the 6th then the Red Sox went to work scoring 4 runs making it 7-0.
Tyler O’Neil led off the inning getting hit by a pitch, Triston Casas hit a single to left putting runners on the corners. Masataka Yoshida hit a single to center and scored O’Neil.
Former Detroit Tiger Jose Cisnero then struck out Emmanuel Valdez before being pulled from the game for Jose Suarez.
The Red Sox countered by pinch hitting Ceddanne Rafaela who grounded out but moved the runner up. Reese McGuire then followed clearing the bases making it 7-0 Red Sox with a home run to right field. David Hamilton hit a single after then Jarred Duran lined out to end the top of the 6th.
The Red Sox added to their lead when Cedanne Rafaela hit a one-out triple to right off Jose Suarez and Reese McGuire grounded to 1st and drove him in for McGuire’s fourth RBI of the game.
The Red Sox took an 8-0 lead to the bottom of the eighth.
The Angels on the other hand have had seven batters reach base five through hits two by walks and have stranded all seven on the bases before Mike Trout came up in the bottom of the 8th with one out and drilled a pitch over the left field wall making it 8-1 Boston and breaking up the Red Sox shutout. That was Trout’s fourth homer thus far in 2024.
The Red Sox were not done and added four more runs in the top of the ninth when Emmanuel Valdez walked with the bases loaded to score Jarred Duran. Ceddanne Rafaela singled in both Matsaka Yoshida and Tyler O’Neil followed by a Reese McGuire Single which scored Emmanuel Valdez for McGuire’s fifth RBI of the afternoon. David Hamilton walked to load the bases full of Red Sox. The Angels down 12-1 put the DH Miguel Sano into pitch replacing Guillo Zuninga who gave up two hits and two walks and one earned run before Sano came in and closed out the top of the 9th by getting Jarred Duran to ground out to end the inning.
Ron Washington would go to the bench in the bottom of the ninth with Matt Thaiss pinch hitting for Logan O’Hoppe getting a single, then bringing in Jo Adell to pinch hit for Mickey Moniak who popped out. Next it was Luis Rengifo hitting for Zach Neto, Renigifo singled to center Thaiss moved to third and would score on a wild pitch.
The game would end 12-2 Red Sox on top with Tanner Houck getting the win six innings pitched four hits two walks and allowing no runs.
The Angels dropped to 5-4 while the Red Sox improved to 7-3.
The losing pitcher for the Angels was Chase Silseth who pitched five innings three earned runs three hits all homers two walks and seven strikeouts.
Life after Shoehei Ohtani hasn’t been too bad for the Angels. The team under the guidance of Ron Washington is currently 9-9 and is in third place in the AL West Division.
One must not forget that Mike Trout is currently hitting .284 with seven home runs and 10 RBI.
The Angels are getting contributions from left-fielder Taylor Ward who is hitting .292 with six homers and 20 RBI.
The top pitcher for Los Angeles is Reid Detmers, who is 3-0, in 17.1 innings, 24 strikeouts, six walks, and a 1.04 ERA.
Check out my interview with Trout along with the pre-game Media Availability with Washington.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox have the same 9-9 record, but currently reside in the AL East Basement.
JB Ellis can be reached www.sidelinesportsnet.com.
