Clay Buchholz and Terry Francona both talked about how he did not have his best stuff, but to throw seven zeroes up on an off night says something about Buchholz's ability.
Dustin Pedroia was 0-for-4 with an error but said he felt pretty good and was pleased to get tested early and often on defense.
"That's what I was most nervous about was moving around," said Pedroia, who led the Red Sox with five assists.
Pedroia said his timing at the plate is a little off and that he fouled off-speed pitches he would normally handle.
He also had some pretty high praise for Ryan Kalish, whose grand slam was the big blow.
"There's not anything he can't do on a baseball field," Pedroia said.
There were two minor injury updates following the game. Jacoby Ellsbury is flying back to Boston on a red-eye after being examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum on LA. Yocum and Dr. Gill, the Sox' medical director, will talk Wednesday. We may have an update then.
Also, Jason Varitek's exam revealed that there is still some healing to go before he can increase his workouts dramatically. "It's not bad, it's just not healed," Francona said.
We should have more on both of those situations going forward. First pitch of the second game of the series is 7:10 p.m. John Lackey takes on Scott Kazmir.
Final, Red Sox 6-0: That's about as easy as it gets. The Red Sox get seven scoreless innings from Clay Buchholz, a grand slam from Ryan Kalish and a solo shot from Darnell McDonald to improve to 8-0 against the Angels this season.
More importantly, Boston keeps pace with Tampa Bay and New York, both of whom were winning at the time the Sox-Angels went final.
We'll go hear from Kalish, Buchholz, Dustin Pedroia and the rest of them before summing it all up for you.
End 8th, Red Sox 6-0: Michael Bowden will get a chance to close this one out. His previous outing in Texas did not go so well (error, three hits) so this is a good spot to get him right back out there.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 6-0: Felix Doubront flirted with losing the shutout, giving up two singles and a walk to load the bases. He then blows away Erick Aybar with a fastball to get the Red Sox three outs away from their first shutout since June 20 against the Dodgers.
Clay Buchholz started that one as well. That's not a coincidence.
End 7th, Red Sox 6-0: The Sox haven't won a game at home by more than four runs since July 3 against Baltimore. They've gone to the bullpen to try to preserve the comfortable lead in this one, turning to Felix Doburont to start the eighth.
Clay Buchholz allows five hits, strikes out three and walks two. His ERA is down to 2.36.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 6-0: Perhaps sensing that this could be it for Clay Buchholz, the fans give him a nice hand as he leaves the mound following a 1-2-3 seventh. He finishes the frame with his second and third strikeouts.
End 6th, Red Sox 6-0: Felix Doubront continues to get loose as Clay Buchholz heads back out to begin the seventh.
Tampa Bay and New York are both winning right now, although the Yankees' lead is just two runs in the sixth. Scoreboard watching season is in full effect.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 6-0: For the first time since the opening inning Clay Buchholz has to work a bit. Consecutive two-out singles by Alberto Callaspo and Torii Hunter and then a walk to Hideki Matsui load the bases.
But with a grounder to first base off the bat of Erick Aybar, Buchholz has now thrown 16 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run.
Felix Doubront was up and warming in the bullpen during that inning. Buchholz's pitch count is 95.
Speaking of pitching changes, Jered Weaver is done. Trevor Bell is the first out of the Angels' bullpen.
End 5th, Red Sox 6-0: Victor Martinez had been hitless in his last 12 at-bats before ripping an RBI double off the wall in right-center field to plate David Ortiz in the fifth. Five of Boston's six hits have gone for extra bases.
Jered Weaver is a very good pitcher but he just cannot get it done in Fenway Park, which has been known to mess with some of the best in the business on the mound.
His career ERA in four-plus starts at Fenway is 7.76.
Mid 5th, Red Sox 5-0: Dustin Pedroia will be charged with an error in his first game back but it's about as tough a ruling as you'll find. Put it this way. His throw on the back half of a potential double play would've been hauled in by Kevin Youkilis.
Instead, it gets by Mike Lowell for an E4. Clay Buchholz doesn't let it bother him by getting Peter Bourjos on a grounder to short to end it.
End 4th, Red Sox 5-0: If you caught our 6:55 p.m. post you saw reference to Ryan Kalish's impressive batting practice, which saw him hit several balls clear over the bullpens in right. This time he only reached the bullpen, so he must be tiring out a bit.
Kalish follows a single and two walks with his first career grand slam. It is his second home run overall for a kid who is putting a stranglehold on that center field job.
Mid 4th, Red Sox 1-0: Clay Buchholz has now thrown 14 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings spanning parts of three starts. He survives a one-out walk in the fourth and has thrown a tidy 50 pitches so far.
End 3rd, Red Sox 1-0: Darnell McDonald has shattered a windshield, which is a good thing. He takes an 0-1 fastball from Jered Weaver and smacks it over the Green Monster and into some unfortunate soul's Toyota.
Weaver had retired the first eight men he faced in just 33 pitches but McDonald's blast altered things in a hurry. Marco Scutaro followed with a double and Weaver battled with Dustin Pedroia before getting him on a grounder to the mound.
That is two home runs in as many games for McDonald, who has eighth on the year.
Mid 3rd, 0-0: Clay Buchholz has retired eight of the last nine he has faced, facing the minimum over that time due to a double play in the second. The Red Sox are still seeking their first base runner.
End 2nd, 0-0: Adrian Beltre has shown some pretty good opposite field power of late. Doesn't mean much when Torii Hunter is moved from center field to right field.
Hunter makes a spectacular catch of a sure home run ball by Beltre that was ticketed for the Red Sox' bullpen. I'm hearing that is the 37th time Hunter has robbed someone of a home run, including the All-Star game a few years back in which he took back a Barry Bonds' blast.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: We've seen Dustin Pedroia at the plate and now we've seen him get active in the field. After coming up a little short on a Hideki Matsui single up the middle, Pedroia tags Matsui on the front end of a nice double play.
No issues with his movement on the foot.
End 1st, 0-0: Three times in a roughly four-minute session with the media earlier Tuesday Dustin Pedroia referenced that Jered Weaver leads the American League in strikeouts. Although Pedroia jumped on Weaver's first offering for a hard foul down the left-field line, he eventually becomes victim No. 183 for Weaver.
Soon thereafter, David Ortiz becomes victim No. 184, flailing at a changeup.
Mid 1st, 0-0: It took two pitches for the Angels to get a man to second and one more to bring the trainers out to check on Clay Buchholz, who was spiked by Maicer Izturis on a play at first base. From there things went a bit better.
Bobby Abreu, who doubled to lead things off, moved to third on the Buchholz putout at first. After Buchholz threw some warmup tosses to make sure he was OK, he got Alberto Callaspo on a comebacker that caught Abreu off third.
The putout goes 1-2-5 and Torii Hunter followed with a pop to left. Good escape job by Buchholz there.
This place will get very loud very soon as Dustin Pedroia comes to the plate.
7:08 p.m.: We just had a moment of silence for New York Giants legend Bobby Thomson and saw Donna Johnson, wife of the late Celtics Hall of Famer Dennis Johnson, throw out the first pitch. With those nice tributes we are ready to play ball.
6:55 p.m.: Among the scenes here at Fenway Park is a center field that was torn apart by the concert over the weekend. There are several darker shades of sod likely thrown down to replace the old stuff. All in the name of Rock 'N Roll.
We also saw Jarrod Saltalamacchia taking grounders at first base earlier Tuesday. He has played 38 games at first in his career and may factor into the rotation down there when Mike Lowell needs a day off and they want to keep Victor Martinez behind the plate.
There was also a pretty nice hitting exhibition put on by Ryan Kalish in batting practice. This kid has some pretty good power and it might be a matter of time before it starts to show up a bit more in his stat line.
6:31 p.m.: Apologies for the delay in posting as I had some technical difficulties. But everything is up and running and we are set to carry you through the opener of the homestand.
We have posted a story on Dustin Pedroia's return and the Red Sox roster moves, and all of the injury updates are below.
That leaves us with a wonderful pitching matchup to look forward to. In Clay Buchholz you have the AL leader in ERA (2.49) and in Jered Weaver you have the AL leader in strikeouts (182), giving us two-thirds representation in the pitching triple crown.
If Buchholz wins he will be one of just a handful of pitchers to reach 14 wins and could factor into the race for that category down the stretch.
All eyes will be on Pedroia, but we may get a doozy of a duel on the mound.
4:33 p.m.: As we watch the Red Sox take batting practice and players shag flies in a center field torn up by the Aerosmith/J.Geils concert, we have plenty of updates from the park, including the 18th time a Boston player has been placed on the disabled list.
Eric Patterson is the latest casualty, going on the DL with a strained neck. His roster spot is being taken by Daniel Nava.
Dustin Richardson was optioned to Pawtucket to make room for Dustin Pedroia.
In other news:
– Jacoby Ellsbury is being examined in LA again as I type this. We may have more on the severity of his injury later on.
– Jason Varitek had another scan on this broken foot and will be further examined during the course of the night. There has been "a lot of improvement," according to Terry Francona, but there is still not 100 percent healing. Varitek was seen sprinting in the outfielder earlier and continues to take cuts in the cage.
– Mike Cameron may begin to ramp up his activities soon. Francona said team officials will meet with him in the next couple of days to lay out a plan for him to come back.
– Hideki Okajima threw Tuesday and will throw again Thursday. There is a chance he could be back in games by Sunday.
– The DL of Patterson does not mean that Ryan Kalish will get every single start in center field but he will get the lion's share. Left field will see a rotation of Nava, Bill Hall and Darnell McDonald.
Back in a bit with some more for you.
3:10 p.m.: There was never any doubt that Dustin Pedroia would be in the lineup for the Red Sox on Tuesday, but we now have the official word. Here is the much more attractive Red Sox lineup with Pedey aboard:
Marco Scutaro, SS
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
David Ortiz, DH
Victor Martinez, C
Adrian Beltre, 3B
J.D. Drew, RF
Mike Lowell, 1B
Ryan Kalish, CF
Darnell McDonald, LF
And here are the Angels, with their recently renewed outfield rotation:
Bobby Abreu, LF
Maicer Izturis, 2B
Alberto Callaspo, 3B
Torii Hunter, RF
Hideki Matsui, DH
Erick Aybar, SS
Mike Napoli, 1B
Bobby Wilson, C
Peter Bourjos, CF
Headed down to the clubhouse in a bit and then will hear from Terry Francona. We will have all of your pregame news and notes in a bit.
2:54 p.m.: Greetings from Fenway Park, where the heat has followed the Red Sox up from Texas, although it's at least managable. We shouldn't be losing any players to heat exhaustion any time soon.
Even if we do, we'll certainly have Dustin Pedroia to welcome back. It'll be quite a scene when the former MVP takes to the field, potentially the savior for a squad that needs to put together some wins in a big way.
The lineups should be posted in a few moments. We will get you those when we can.
9 a.m.: They say home is where the heart is. The Red Sox hope it is also where the wins are.
After completing a 5-5 road trip Boston returns home Tuesday to open a nine-game homestand that could go a long way toward determining their fate down the stretch.
And they do so with Dustin Pedroia back in the fold.
The former MVP will be activated from the disabled list prior to the game, ending an absence of almost two months with a broken left foot.
The homestand starts with one of the best on the mound for Boston. Clay Buchholz, who leads the American League in ERA, will look to become the fifth 14-game winner in the AL.
The Angels, who are winless in seven games against the Sox this season, turn to their ace in Jered Weaver.
First pitch is 7:10 p.m.
