Lackey Leads Sox In Return To Angel Stadium
[photogallerylink id=35829 align=right]John Lackey pitched into the eighth inning to win in his return to Angel Stadium, and Jed Lowrie's two-run double in the seventh put the Boston Red Sox ahead in a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night.
Lackey was narrowly outpitched by Jered Weaver in a meeting of the Angels' past and present aces until Darnell McDonald and Marco Scutaro scored Boston's first two runs on a clutch two-out drive by Lowrie in just his sixth game of the season after missing nearly four months with mononucleosis.
Lackey (10-5) was mostly booed in his first game back in Orange County since signing a big-money free-agent deal with Boston. He gave up seven hits and left after Bobby Abreu's homer on his 124th pitch.
Adrian Beltre added an RBI double in the eighth, and Scutaro scored on a throwing error in the ninth. Scutaro had three hits, McDonald had two in a last-minute start, and Lowrie had two doubles.
The Red Sox have scored eight of their 11 runs after the sixth inning in the series' first two games, and the Angels have wasted solid starts by Dan Haren and Weaver (9-7), who allowed six hits in seven innings and struck out eight in his fourth loss in five starts.
Abreu also had an early RBI double for the Angels, who have lost six of seven.
Daniel Bard got two outs in the eighth after Abreu's homer, and Jonathan Papelbon finished for his 24th save.
Lackey won 102 games in eight seasons with the Angels before leaving for a five-year, $82.5 million deal with the Red Sox last year. Although Lackey was durable and dynamic for the Angels, he showed little sentimentality about the club last season, perhaps alienating some Angels fans.
The announcement of Lackey's name during pregame introductions was greeted with plenty of boos, and the jeers intensified when he took the mound in the bottom of the first inning. A few fans held up derogatory signs directed at Lackey, who won Game 7 of the 2002 World Series on the same mound as an Angels rookie.
The Red Sox scratched right fielder J.D. Drew a few minutes before the first pitch with tightness in his left hamstring. Lowrie moved into his No. 2 spot in the order, while McDonald was his replacement - and both played key offensive roles for the star-studded Sox.
McDonald drew a two-out walk from Weaver in the seventh after falling behind 0-2. Scutaro added a single, and Lowrie poked Weaver's 112th pitch over the head of left fielder Juan Rivera, who was playing exceptionally shallow.
David Ortiz scored from first base on Beltre's double in the eighth thanks to a weak relay by Maicer Izturis, who couldn't throw out Ortiz from shallow left field. Torii Hunter ended the inning with a leaping catch on Mike Cameron's drive to the wall.
After going 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position in Monday's 6-3 loss, the Angels stranded four more in the first four innings. Hunter, the Angels' All-Star cleanup hitter and most consistent offensive player this year, struck out looking with runners on second and third in the third inning.
NOTES: Haren still expects to make his next start after getting hit in the right forearm by a line drive in his Los Angeles debut Monday night. Haren felt encouraged by a long-toss session Tuesday, and he'll do his usual work between starts Wednesday while also traveling back to Phoenix to take care of some personal business after Sunday's trade. Haren is scheduled to start Saturday against Texas. ... Boston LF Jeremy Hermida struck out three times and made a two-base error on Hideki Matsui's fly in the second inning, whiffing when he slid to catch it. ... Cameron channeled Willie Mays in the fifth inning with a back-to-the-plate, over-the-shoulder catch on the run at the center field wall on Izturis' long fly.
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