Blackjack! Angels Beat Red Sox 21-2 Behind Cron's 6 Hits
LOS ANGELES (AP) — C.J. Cron went 6 for 6 with two homers and five RBIs, Carlos Perez had five hits and drove in six and the Los Angeles Angels walloped the Boston Red Sox 21-2 on Saturday night to end a four-game losing streak.
Albert Pujols hit his 575th career homer — a two-run shot — and had five RBIs for the Angels, who had lost 10 of their last 11 games.
Cron and Perez each homered during an 11-run seventh inning. They are the first set of teammates with at least five hits and five RBIs in the same game since Gene Moore and Buck Jordan for the Boston Braves in 1936, according to ESPN.
It's the sixth time the Angels reached 20 runs, the last coming against Kansas City on Aug. 25, 2004. The club record for runs is 24, set at Toronto on Aug. 25, 1979.
Mookie Betts had a solo homer and three hits for Boston, which won the series opener after losing four of five.
Red Sox outfielder Ryan LaMarre pitched the ninth, giving up no runs and two hits.
Hector Santiago (5-4) got the win, holding the majors' highest scoring team to one unearned run and four hits over six innings.
Clay Buchholz gave up six runs — three earned — in 4 1/3 innings.
With Los Angles leading 4-0 in the fifth, Perez's three-run double capped a five-run inning that broke it open. Buchholz (3-9) was lifted with runners on first and second with one out. Travis Shaw then fired high to second for an error on a probable double-play grounder by Pujols, with the relay late to first. One out later, Cron hit his two-run single.
Johnny Giavotella singled to re-load the bases before Perez cleared them with a double off the center-field wall.
Cron homered over the Monster in the fourth to make it 4-0.
ELEVEN-RUN INNING
During the 11-run seventh, Pujols had a three-run double, Cron a two-run homer and Perez added a two-run shot, which brought mock cheers from the Fenway Park fans. The inning put Los Angeles ahead 20-1.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Angels: 3B Yunel Escobar returned to the lineup after missing seven straight with a tender left knee. He batted leadoff and went 1 for 4 before being lifted for a pinch runner.
Red Sox: Manager John Farrell said switch-hitting OF/C Blake Swihart (sprained left ankle) took BP indoors, but only from the left side to avoid stress on the ankle. ... The manager also said that RHP Joe Kelly (demoted to the minors last month) threw a 40-pitch session Saturday as he works to come back from a groin injury. When healthy, the plan is to shift him to relief and prepare him to work out of Boston's bullpen.
UP NEXT
Angels: RHP Matt Shoemaker (3-8, 4.12 ERA) looks for better luck this month starting in the series finale on Sunday. He was winless in six June starts, going 0-3 despite a 2.14 ERA.
Red Sox: RHP Sean O'Sullivan (1-0, 7.94) is slated to start for Boston.
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