Sox sorry to see Angels leave town

Sox 7, Los Angeles 2

WP: Beckett (3-0)
LP: Santana (1-2)
HRs: BOS- Big Papi (4); L.A.- Cabrera (1), Kendrick (2)

Sox box

This sliding catch was one of three great defensive plays by Julio Lugo on the day

SUMMARY:
On Patriot's Day in Boston Josh Beckett posted his 3rd straight impressive victory to open the season and the Sox hitters battered Angels pitcher Ervin Santana for 7 runs (5 ER) in 4 innings; for the second time in the series Boston had a 6-run inning and thanks to some terrible Angels pitching outscored L.A. 25-3 in the three games.

HERO: Beckett 6IP, 6H, 1ER, 1BB, 5Ks, 1HR
In his first two starts of '07, Josh Beckett limited the opposition to just 1 earned run, kept the ball in the yard, and enjoyed the benefit of some gratuitous run support. All I can say about start No. 3 is "two out of three ain't bad." Although he gave up a home run to Orlando Cabrera, that was the only run Beckett allowed in a workmanlike, winning performance.

GOAT: Howie Kendrick
The Angels' promising young second sacker made a huge, possibly game-altering blunder in the Sox 6-run 1st inning. With Boston already leading 3-1, J.D.Drew hit a textbook double play grounder that would have kept the damage to a minimum; instead Kendrick's toss wound up all the way at the leftfield wall, leading to 3 more runs and ensuring the Angels would lose their 3rd straight game in the series.

RECAP:
The horrible new England storm that had forced the cancellation of yesterday's game, made the running of the Boston Marathon look like a swim meet, and pushed back the start of today's game from 10:00 am to noon dissipated just minutes before the scheduled 12:05 start time.

Shortly thereafter, when power-deficient former Sox shortstop Orlando Cabrera took Josh Beckett deep with one out in the first, every member of RSN gulped deeply and thought to themselves "oh great, Gopherball Beckett has made his first appearance of 2007." When he hit the next batter, Vlad Guerrero, with a pitch that forced the Angels slugger out of the game, the bad thoughts continued (although if you're gonna have control problems Vlad's the guy you want to be the victim).

But a funny thing happened to the new & improved Josh Beckett after those two surprising hits- he didn't allow another run the rest of the day en route to coasting to his third win on the power of the Sox offense and his new found ability to mix up his pitches.

While Beckett was recovering beautifully from his shaky start (might have had something to do with his start being delayed for 23 hours) the Boston offense went to work on another Angels hurler. This time the victim was Ervin not to be confused with Johan Santana, who by the end of the first inning looked like he had been through his own Heartbreak Hill. The inning went like this: Lugo doubled, Youk singled him in (1-1), Papi doubled, Manny singled Youk & Papi in (3-1), Drew hit the potential DP ball than Kendrick threw away, scoring Manny (4-1) and when Lowell doubled in Drew (5-1) the Sox had scored five runs before a single out was recorded.

It got so bad that after two outs were made, lightweight Alex Cora nearly put a ball into the rightfield seats, although he ended up settling for Boston's 4th double of the first inning that pushed across its 6th run, and just like that a dubious, dreary beginning for Boston turned into another impressive team victory.

By the time David Ortiz hit his second homer in as many days to centerfield to give Boston a 7-1 lead in the 4th, the winners of the marathon were already counting their prize money and the Angles were counting the minutes until their charter could get them out of Boston and on to Oakland.

It was a wet & wild series with the banged-up Angels, one that we wish could have lasted about 7 more games. Boston hitters thrived on the home cooking and the pitching staff has been better than expected so far. Now it's off to Toronto for a 3-game set with the Jays before the team returns to Fenway for the first meeting of 2007 with the Evil Empire.

Let's just savor this series sweep for now, shall we?

NOTES & QUOTES:

-Willy Mo Pena got his first start of the season, replacing the struggling Coco Crisp; WMP had been slated to start last Thursday against Seattle in the game that was rained out

-After hitting safely in Boston's first 9 games, Drew has now gone hitless in two straight games (0-7), although he did reach on an error which extended his on-base streak to all 11 games

-Following Beckett's beaning of Guerrero, umpire Rick Reed warned both benches against retaliation, drawing the ire of Angels manager Mike Maddog Scioscia, whose pitcher hadn't even taken the mound yet

-X-rays on Guerrero's right wrist were negative, showing he suffered only a bone bruise (I'm no expert, but for a guy who swings as hard as Vlad does, I would think a bone bruise isn't so great); Reggie Willits took over for Guerrero

-"It's definitely different. It feels like the loser's bracket of an AAU tournament or something. Getting ready for a 10 o'clock game last night, do you go to bed at 8 or 9? It's easy to get out of sorts."- Beckett on the crazy Patriots Day start time

-"It seems like when it rains it pours, figuratively and literally."- Gary Matth'roids Jr.; it doesn't help when you're a high-dollar free agent who's hitting .229 and making costly errors on routine fly balls

RECORD: 7-4

AL EAST: Up 1/2 gm over TOR

UP NEXT: TUE @ TOR, 7PM

Dice-K (1-1, 2.57) vs. Chacin (1-0, 4.91)