Final, Red Sox 3-1: Koji Uehara pitched a scoreless ninth inning. The Red Sox leave Anaheim with two wins in their back pockets.
All three of Boston’s runs Sunday came on one swing of the bat. Yoenis Cespedes blasted a three-run homer — his first in a Red Sox uniform — to break a scoreless tie in the eighth inning.
Mike Trout answered in the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer, but it wasn’t enough. The Red Sox, who suffered a crushing 19-inning loss Saturday, rebounded for a victory in the series finale.
Rubby De La Rosa was tremendous in seven-plus innings of work. He allowed just one run — Trout’s homer — on five hits and three walks. De La Rosa matched a career-high with eight strikeouts while giving the Red Sox exactly what they needed following Saturday’s marathon.
The Red Sox are off Monday. They’ll then play a quick two-game series in Cincinnati before returning to Fenway Park for an 11-game homestand.
Mid 9th, Red Sox 3-1: Angels pitchers have recorded 13 strikeouts.
Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Dan Butler all struck out swinging in the ninth inning. Will Middlebrooks mixed in a walk against Vinnie Pestano.
Bradley has obtained the golden sombrero. He has struck out four times. He’s now 0 for his last 35.
Here comes Koji Uehara.
End 8th, Red Sox 3-1: Red Sox manager John Farrell stuck with Rubby De La Rosa one batter too long.
Mike Trout led off the bottom of the eighth inning with his 27th home run of the season. That ended De La Rosa’s outing, although it was a fantastic started for the young right-hander.
Edward Mujica entered and recorded three consecutive outs.
De La Rosa allowed just the one run on five hits and three walks over seven-plus innings. He wiggled out of a few jams but gave the Red Sox exactly what they needed after the bullpen was taxed Saturday night.
De La Rosa matched a career-high with eight strikeouts.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 3-0: Yo!
Yoenis Cespedes picked a phenomenal time to hit his first home run in a Red Sox uniform. The slugger clubbed a rocket over the left field fence in the eighth inning for a three-run blast.
Brock Holt reached on an error and Dustin Pedroia singled into left field. Cespedes then jumped on an 0-1 pitch from Joe Smith for his 18th home run of the season.
Rubby De La Rosa, who has been tremendous, certainly deserved that. De La Rosa will come back out to begin the bottom of the eighth inning.
In other news, Mike Napoli was ejected in the eighth inning for arguing balls and strikes. Napoli hasn’t been too happy with the strike zone all series and it came to a head in the eighth when home plate umpire CB Bucknor rung him up for the slugger’s second strikeout of the contest.
End 7th, 0-0: Rubby De La Rosa is dealing.
De La Rosa worked a scoreless seventh inning. He struck out Chris Iannetta to begin the inning, giving the right-hander eight strikeouts for the game.
The eight K’s match De La Rosa’s career-high. He also struck out eight in his first start of 2014.
Dustin Pedroia capped the inning with a sensational diving play. Kole Calhoun smoked a ground ball up the middle. Pedroia ranged to his right and laid out for another defensive gem.
Mid 7th, 0-0: Kevin Jepsen pitched the seventh inning for L.A.
Jepsen took over after six shutout innings from Hector Santiago. He followed Santiago’s lead, working a 1-2-3 frame.
Xander Bogaerts flied out to right field. Jepsen recorded back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
Jackie Bradley Jr. appears to have absolutely zero confidence at the plate right now. He struck out for the third time, extending his hitless streak to 0-for-34.
End 6th, 0-0: Rubby De La Rosa yielded a single but otherwise kept the Angels’ offense in check.
Erick Aybar and Howie Kendrick led off the sixth inning with back-to-back ground ball outs.
David Freese dropped a two-out base hit into right-center field.
Efren Navarro gave one a ride to deep left field. Yoenis Cespedes retreated to make a routine, inning-ending grab.
The Halos will turn to their bullpen after six shutout innings from Hector Santiago. Santiago didn’t record a single ground ball out.
Mid 6th, 0-0: Hector Santiago has pitched six scoreless innings without recording a single ground ball out.
Santiago handled business with two flyouts and a strikeout in the sixth inning. Mike Napoli was the strikeout victim.
Yoenis Cespedes and Kelly Johnson both flied out to center field. Mike Trout successfully battled a tough sun at Angel Stadium.
End 5th, 0-0:Â Rubby De La Rosa is putting together a nice start.
De La Rosa struck out the side in the fifth inning. Kole Calhoun, Mike Trout and Albert Pujols were victimized.
De La Rosa has done a nice job changing speeds. He’s been dialing it up to around 95 mph while also taking a little off here and there to keep the Angels hitters off balance.
De La Rosa has seven strikeouts thus far.
Mid 5th, 0-0: The Red Sox’s bid for two-out damage fell short.
Will Middlebrooks lined out to right field and Jackie Bradley Jr. struck out to begin the fifth inning. Bradley has struck out twice, running his hitless streak to 0-for-33.
Dan Butler, who popped out in his first big league at-bat, walked in his second plate appearance. Brock Holt followed with a single.
Hector Santiago closed down the inning by retiring Dustin Pedroia via a flyout to right field. Pedroia nearly hooked one around the left field foul pole before flying out to right.
End 4th, 0-0: They’re scoreless through four at Angel Stadium.
Rubby De La Rosa again worked through some trouble en route to a scoreless fourth inning. He has surrendered three hits and walked three yet has buckled down with men on base.
Howie Kendrick led off with a chopper down the third base line. Will Middlebrooks made a backhanded play ranging into foul territory but had no shot at throwing out Kendrick.
Kendrick took off for second base and catcher Dan Butler’s throw sailed into center field. Kendrick popped up and continued on to third base.
David Freese walked, setting up runners at the corners with no outs. De La Rosa promptly went to work.
De La Rosa shut down Efren Navarro, Chris Iannetta and Collin Cowgill to keep the Angels off the scoreboard. Navarro flied out into shallow left field, Iannetta struck out and Cowgill popped out to second base.
Mid 4th, 0-0:Â Dustin Pedroia, like he did Saturday, gave the Red Sox their first hit of the game.
Pedroia led off the fourth inning with a double into the left-center field gap. The double was Pedroia’s 30th of 2014.
Yoenis Cespedes popped out into foul territory, at which point the Angels decided to intentionally walk Mike Napoli with first base open.
Pedroia took third base when Kelly Johnson lined out to right field. The Red Sox stranded the potential go-ahead run 90 feet away, though, as Xander Bogaerts popped out to the right side to end the threat.
End 3rd, 0-0: Rubby De La Rosa probably didn’t make too many friends in Anaheim in the third inning.
De La Rosa hit Mike Trout with a pitch. It appeared to strike Trout on his right knee. The 23-year-old briefly hobbled around but was OK.
The hit batsman followed a one-out double by Kole Calhoun. Calhoun, who has had a good series, hooked a line drive down the right field line.
De La Rosa, as he did in the first inning, successfully walked the tightrope. He retired Albert Pujols and Erick Aybar to escape trouble.
Mid 3rd, 0-0: Here we go again?
Garrett Richards carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning of Saturday’s game before Dustin Pedroia singled into center field. Hector Santiago hasn’t allowed a hit through the first three innings of this one.
Santiago made quick work of Jackie Bradley Jr., Dan Butler and Brock Holt in the third inning.
Bradley struck out swinging. His streak now stands at 0-for-32.
Butler swung at the first pitch in his first major league at-bat. He popped out to first baseman Efren Navarro.
Brock Holt ended the inning with a fly ball to left field.
End 2nd, 0-0:Â Rubby De La Rosa’s second inning of work was much cleaner than his first.
David Freese, Efren Navarro and Chris Iannetta went down in order.
Freese and Iannetta both grounded to the left side. Navarro struck out looking on an offspeed pitch up in the zone.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: Hector Santiago pitched through a leadoff walk in the second inning.
Mike Napoli, who walked twice Saturday, drew a seven-pitch walk in his first plate appearance of this game.
Santiago struck out Kelly Johnson in Johnson’s first at-bat in a Red Sox uniform. It looked like Johnson might have checked his swing, but third base umpire Ben May felt differently.
Xander Bogaerts flied out to left field and Will Middlebrooks struck out to end the inning.
End 1st, 0-0: Rubby De La Rosa gave the Red Sox a scare in the first inning.
De La Rosa issued two walks as the Angels loaded the bases with one out. Kole Calhoun led off with an infield single, and Albert Pujols and Erick Aybar both walked after Mike Trout grounded into a 6-4 forceout.
Xander Bogaerts airmailed his throw while trying to turn a double play on Trout’s forceout, enabling the future MVP to advance to second base.
Given that the Red Sox desperately need innings — even if they’re not exactly shutdown innings — from De La Rosa in this game, free passes aren’t going to cut it. Fortunately for Boston, the right-hander bounced back to induce a big ground ball.
Howie Kendrick grounded into a 6-4-3, inning-ending double play.
Mid 1st, 0-0: Hector Santiago started his afternoon with a 1-2-3 first inning. As mentioned, it’s very important for these two starters to bring their A-game after Saturday’s 19-inning affair.
Santiago retired Brock Holt on a little flair to the left side. Dustin Pedroia and Yoenis Cespedes flied out to center field and right field, respectively.
Rubby De La Rosa now punches in.
3:40 p.m.: Hector Santiago’s first pitch struck home plate umpire CB Bucknor. Not a great way for Bucknor to start his day.
The Angels’ trainer checked on Bucknor. He’s apparently OK.
3:13 p.m.: At least two players will make their Red Sox debuts Sunday.
Kelly Johnson, who was acquired from the New York Yankees in exchange for shortstop Stephen Drew before last week’s Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline, will play first base and bat fifth. Catcher Dan Butler, who’s making his major league debut, will bat ninth.
Johnson has had a disappointing season to this point. He was activated from the disabled list before Friday’s game and should add some versatility to the Red Sox’s roster. The 32-year-old has shown an ability to play first base, second base, third base and left field.
It’s been a long road to the majors for Butler, who went undrafted out of Arizona. The 27-year-old has spent parts of six seasons in the Red Sox system. Butler was called up from Pawtucket over the weekend when catcher David Ross landed on the disabled list, but Christian Vazquez has started seven games in a row, including all 19 innings Saturday.
Jackie Bradley Jr. has been held out of the starting lineup in four of the last five games, though he did play a big chunk of Saturday’s marathon contest after entering as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning. Bradley will start in center field. He enters stuck in a 0-for-31 slump.
Sunday’s complete lineups are below.
Boston Red Sox (51-64)
Brock Holt, RF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Yoenis Cespedes, LF
Mike Napoli, DH
Kelly Johnson, 1B
Xander Bogaerts, SS
Will Middlebrooks, 3B
Jackie Bradley Jr., CF
Dan Butler, C
Rubby De La Rosa, RHP (3-4, 3.43 ERA)
Los Angeles Angels (67-48)
Kole Calhoun, RF
Mike Trout, CF
Albert Pujols, DH
Erick Aybar, SS
Howie Kendrick, 2B
David Freese, 3B
Efren Navarro, 1B
Chris Ianetta, C
Collin Cowgill, LF
Hector Santiago, LHP (3-7, 3.84 ERA)
3 p.m. ET: The Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels didn’t conclude Saturday’s middle game until 3:39 a.m. ET Sunday. Less than 12 hours later, they’ll return to work to close out their three-game series.
The Red Sox and Angels battled for six hours, 31 minutes Saturday before Albert Pujols lifted the Halos to a 5-4 win with a walk-off home run in the 19th inning. Los Angeles’ victory set up a rubber match in the series finale.
Rubby De La Rosa and Hector Santiago will square off Sunday. It’ll be vital for each starter to give his team quality innings, as both bullpens were taxed Saturday. The Red Sox and Angels used 18 pitchers — nine on each side — before all was said and done. The clubs even relied on two starters — Brandon Workman for Boston and Matt Shoemaker for Los Angeles — during the marathon affair.
The Red Sox added a fresh arm for Sunday’s game. Edwin Escobar was called up from Triple-A Pawtucket to replace Heath Hembree, who was optioned back to the PawSox following a stellar debut with the Red Sox in which he tossed four shutout innings. Escobar was scheduled to start for Pawtucket on Monday.
Sunday’s first pitch is scheduled for 3:35 p.m. ET. This week has included two rain delays and one extremely lengthy affair on the West Coast, so hopefully the Baseball Gods will cooperate this time around.
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