Just What the Doctor Ordered
By Brian Phair
On a night when Boston sports teams pulled a trifecta (Bruins, Celtics and Sox victories), maybe the most impressive of all was the Red Sox romp of the Los Angeles Angels. After an embarassing sweep at the hands of the lowly Baltimore Orioles, the Sox had a lot to prove against the Angels. In support of a decent start by phenom Clay Buchholz, the Sox offense came to life and dropped a 17 spot on the Angels pitching staff and were able to finally coast to an easy victory at Fenway.
The Sox offense exploded for 11 extra base hits, including home runs from Kevin Youkilis, Bill Hall, Adrian Beltre and Dustin Pedroia. All four of those home runs are notable, because Hall and Beltre hit their first home run as a member of the Sox organization and after sitting out due to a sore groin on Sunday, Youkilis hit a home run in his first at-bat, proving he is healthy. Peddy’s home run was his team-leading 7th on the season, surprising everyone with his power thus far. Of the remaining 7 extra base hits, Mike Lowell had 3 doubles, lifting him up after a poor Orioles series and maybe convincing Terry Francona to give him more playing time.
The Sox pitching staff was solid on Monday, with starter Clay Buchholz giving up 4 earned runs and Manny Delcarmen and Ramon Ramirez shutting down the Angels for 2.1 perfect innings. Scott Schoeneweis continued to struggle, however, by allowing 4 earned runs in the 9th inning during mop-up duty. If the Sox are going to string together some wins, they need more solid performances like Delcarmen’s and Ramirez’s tonight and less implosion innings like Schoeneweis’.
Overall, a blowout win, is a blowout win. Now begins the most difficult period of maintaining the high-level of play and stringing together wins in order to turn their season around. The struggling Angels and a home series may be just what the doctor ordered for this Red Sox club. 1 down, 3 to go at the Fens.