August 17, 2007: Anaheim 13, Boston 1
Angels rout Sox with 9 in Ninth; Yanks lose to Tigers
When is a loss not as painful? When the team you are chasing loses too. Of course, a win would have been nice, but John Lackey (7.2 IP, 5 H, 7 Ks, 1 R) held the Sox bats quiet and the Angels took advantage of ninth inning errors by Manny Ramirez and Jason Varitek to blow up a game that was closer than the final score showed.
John Lackey and the Angels continued to win games playing small ball, scattering twenty hits and four stolen bases against four Red Sox pitchers to win the series opener and stretch their winning streak against the Sox to five games. Boston’s only run of the game came in the second, when JD Drew launched his 17th homerun of the season 425 feet to center.
W: Lackey (12-9) L: Schilling (13-7) SV: Shields (4)
Around the League:
Yankee win streak halted at 12...Detroit 10, New York 5….Milwaukee first baseman Prince Fielder (.285, 25 HR, 83 RBIs, 83 Rs) has blurred vision, suffered while making a defensive play against the Reds. He’s expected to be out for 3 weeks….Dana Eveland (ARI, 10-7, 4.34) will miss 1-2 weeks with a tender elbow. Eveland suffered the injury throwing a pitch in the game against the Braves...Rumors circulating around town say right fielder Juan Encarnacion (.206, 5 HR, 12 RBI) is not happy at all playing in St. Louis and that the Cardinals are actively shopping him around. Encarnacion is owed $6.5m in 2008 and has yet to be palced on waivers by the Cardinals.
August 18, 2007: Anaheim 8, Boston 3
Another bullpen collapse has cost the Red Sox another well pitched game from their starting pitcher. Brett Myers left the game in the eight with runners on first and second and one out, but reliever Mike Timlin could not keep the inherited runners from scoring and the Sox dropped another game to the Angels at Fenway Park. With the game tied at three, manager Terry Francona tried to keep his struggling bullpen out of the game for as long as possible, calling Myers back out for the eight inning in hopes of bridging the back end of the 'pen that hadn't caught the bug going around.
Instead, Timlin gave up surrendered a pinch hit single to Gary Matthews Jr. that scored Chone Figgins and Mike Napoli to give the Angels the go-ahead runs. Hideki Okajima replaced Timlin after he failed to record any outs and promptly allowed two more runners to get on base before Jonathan Papelbon was summoned from the bullpen. Paps worked out of the inning, surrendering two sacrafice flies to finish off the scoring for the Angels.
Boston had rallied in the bottom of the seventh to ties the game at 3 runs a piece on a two-run homerun by Cliff Floyd over the Monster in left. It was his first longball with the Sox and just his third hit in eleven at bats.
W: Carrasco (7-3) L: Myers (12-7) SV: Johnson (2)
Around the league:
Mike Gonzalez of the Atlanta Braves was injured in today's game against Arizona and will miss up to 4 weeks with a strained elbow ligament. Gonzalez has racked up 30 saves in 47 appearances for Atlanta, who lead the NL Wild Card by 6 games over Cincinnati.