Still, it was the first time that laughter had been heard in the clubhouse in several days.
The joy came after the club produced its most runs since it scored 18 on Aug. 2, 2009, at Baltimore. That was also the last time the Sox had at least 20 hits.
Mike Lowell, who went 4-for-4 with three RBIs, chipped in some interesting comments about his playing time, building on a question about having a bad day Sunday and a good one Monday.
"That's such a good feeling when you have that next day, you can turn in a real bad day and then the next day you can be a big contributor," Lowell said. "The beauty for me of playing every day. That's what's great about this game, you can turn it around quick…I understand the situation [involving the platoon at designated hitter]. It does feel like we're on a trial basis just because we're feeling things out as a team. If I can make that decision as hard as possible, I think I'm doing something good.
"I think I've earned more playing time by the last 11 years of my career," Lowell added.
Still, expect to see David Ortiz in the lineup Tuesday against righty Ervin Santana.
Jon Lester goes for the Sox. First pitch is 7:10 p.m.
Final, Red Sox 17-8: Yes, that score is correct. The Red Sox just pounded away on the Angels in the opener of a big 10-game homestand and, despite Scott Schoeneweis' best efforts to make it interesting in the ninth, pick up a huge victory.
Boston gets 20 hits, including seven doubles and four home runs. Kind of makes you wonder where this was the past five days.
Schoeneweis gives up four in the ninth to prolong the night, but finally retires the side.
With the win, the Sox are 12-14 and get to throw Jon Lester on Tuesday night to try to build some sort of momentum before the Yankees come to town Friday.
Heading to the clubhouse for some reaction. Back in a bit.
End 8th, Red Sox 17-4: Three outs until the Red Sox' first truly comfortable win of the season is complete. Scott Schoeneweis is on to try to finish things off.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 17-4: Sure, there's a long way to go before the Red Sox can say they've turned anything around, and the Bruins and Celtics still have plenty of work to do, but this is the kind of night that sports fans in other cities hate to see.
It looks as if the three teams in action will each pull off big wins. But heck, we can't drink water here yet without boiling it, so there's room for improvement.
End 7th, Red Sox 17-4: This is getting a bit ugly, but with the way the Sox have struggled at times, it must look real nice to them.
Through seven innings, Boston has 20 hits. J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell both have four. Five others have two. The club has also drawn four walks and has one hit batter.
Here is the up-to-the-minute numbers on Drew. He is now 16-for-44 (.364) with 17 RBIs in his last 10-plus games.
And here's a nice nugget on Lowell, just to get all you David Ortiz haters going. In 62 at-bats as a designated hitter this year, Ortiz has six RBIs. Lowell has driven in the exact same number in just 22 at-bats as a DH.
Something to think about.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 14-4: Manny Delcarmen's impressive run continues. He has not allowed a run in 8 2/3 innings over eight appearances. Opponents are hitting .075 (3-for-40) against him.
End 6th, Red Sox 14-4: The Sox have begun to pour it on. How many times have we been able to say that this year?
Boston scores seven more in the sixth and for a rare moment has some breathing room. Adrian Beltre's first home run in a Red Sox uniform and Dustin Pedroia's 49th are the big blows.
Kevin Youkilis started it by ripping one off the extreme right side of the Green Monster, a ball that likely would have cleared a regular-sized wall at about 400 feet. J.D. Drew followed with his third hit in four innings to pick up his 15th RBI in 10-plus games.
Drew is locked in right now. Terry Francona may want to plug him into the third spot in the lineup until Victor Martinez gets going. Francona has done so only once this year, and Drew homered.
Not to be outdone, Mike Lowell improves to 3-for-3 with a double that scores Drew, and Beltre clubbed his first longball since Oct. 1.
A walk and a single put two more on with two outs and Pedroia, the last Red Sox to get a hit, lined one into the first row of the Monster seats off new pitcher Brian Stokes.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 7-4: Manny Delcarmen strikes out Erick Aybar to end the Angels' sixth. More importantly, a '3' was put up next to the Bruins on the scoreboard in left, signifying a huge go-ahead goal across town.
9:35 p.m.: Clay Buchholz gets a warm applause after he is taken out with one on, two out and one run already in in the sixth. Manny Delcarmen is on.
End 5th, Red Sox 7-3: Matt Palmer comes on for the Angels and does what Joe Saunders could not — get guys out.
Saunders walks the leadoff man in the fifth, Bill Hall, and gets yanked in favor of Palmer, who retires all three he faced.
Manny Delcarmen is warming in the Red Sox bullpen as we start the sixth.
Mid 5th, Red Sox 7-3: I don't know if it's because everyone is dehydrated because of the water emergency or they are all checking the Bruins and Celtics scores on their phone, but this is a pretty quiet crowd by Fenway standards.
They let up a nice cheer when Darnell McDonald runs down Hideki Matsui's drive with two on to end the fifth, but usually two-strike pitches in that situation are met with plenty of support for the pitcher to get out of the jam. Clay Buchholz only heard a smattering of applause before getting out of the inning.
Regardless, he strands a pair and should have another inning in him before we get to the 'pen.
End 4th, Red Sox 7-3: The Angels weren't going to allow Kevin Youkilis to hurt them again. So they walked him, choosing to pitch to J.D. Drew with the bases loaded. It didn't work.
Drew continues his hot stretch with a two-run single up the middle, and Joe Saunders' line is getting uglier by the minute here.
Drew, meanwhile, has some great looking numbers of late. In his last 11 games, including Monday night, the right fielder is batting .333 (14-for-42) with four home runs and 14 RBIs.
Mid 4th, Red Sox 5-3: Clay Buchholz had a couple of long innings to sit in the dugout as the Sox sent eight to the plate in the second and six in the third. Perhaps we saw some effects of that lag time in the fourth.
Buchholz allowed the first five men to reach safely on two walks, two singles and a ringing double by Maicer Izturis that scored two. It could've been a lot worse if leadoff man, Torii Hunter, had not been picked off.
As it stands, the Angels get two on the Izturis double and another on an RBI groundout by Howie Kendrick and are right back in this thing.
You didn't think the Sox were going to run and hide, did you? That's just not their style in 2010.
End 3rd, Red Sox 5-0: We know what you're all thinking. Joe Saunders threw at Kevin Youkilis on purpose, right? I doubt it — the ball was not even that far inside. But warnings were issued by home plate umpire John Hirschebeck anyway.
Youkilis was hit 16 times last year, good for fourth in the AL. He was not pleased with his third plunking of 2010, but had to like what happened in its wake.
J.D. Drew followed with a single, and Mike Lowell crushed a double off the wall in center to score two. Saunders may not be long for this one.
Mid 3rd, Red Sox 3-0: That is now 11 straight scoreless innings for Clay Buchholz after his second perfect inning of the game.
On a completely different note, Wednesday is shaping up to be a pretty interesting night at Fenway. Not only is the weather supposed to be great, but the club will be honoring Nomar Garciaparra in a pregame ceremony. Then, John Lackey will make his first start against the organization he spent 11 years with.
Should be some storylines.
End 2nd, Red Sox 3-0: Terry Francona said that a day off Sunday did wonders for Kevin Youkilis as he wrestles with a sore groin. It likely wouldn't cause much of an issue in a home run trot, or at least it didn't in the second.
Youkilis took the second pitch he saw from Joe Saunders over the Green Monster for his fifth of the season.
Bill Hall, a 35-homer player just four years ago, gets his first in a Red Sox uniform a few batters later with Adrian Beltre on at first.
Saunders threw 37 pitches in the inning.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: A gutsy effort by Clay Buchholz in the second. It begins with a scary moment as he is struck by a hot shot off the bat of Kendry Morales. The ball appeared to glance off Buchholz's left foot, and he remained in a crouch as it rolled away and Morales reached without a throw.
After a few tosses to test the foot, Buchholz said he was OK and proceeded to strike out Hideki Matsui for the first out.
Then, Adrian Beltre committed his team-leading sixth error to put runners on first and second with just one out. Buchholz pounced off the mound to play a dribbler by Maicer Izturis and got Howie Kendrick to ground to short to end it.
End 1st, 0-0: Joe Saunders has been awful his last two times out, but is always effective in Fenway Park.
Saunders enters with a 3-0 record and a 2.84 ERA in four starts in Boston. He has now surrendered just one home run in 26 1/3 innings at Fenway.
The Sox go quietly against the lefty in the first. Dustin Pedroia was caught looking at a third strike, and did not appreciate the call from home plate umpire John Hirschbeck.
Mid 1st, 0-0: Clay Buchholz enters with a 2.19 ERA and continues to lower it in the first with a 1-2-3 frame.
The righty has allowed just four earned runs over his last 22 2/3 innings overall.
7:11 p.m.: Here are a few notes on the Red Sox' tendency to play tight games, which has made for a grind of a season so far.
- Boston has played in six extra-inning games this season, two more than any other team in the majors.
- The last time a Red Sox team has played six extra-inning games in their first 25 games was 1943, when they had seven such affairs.
- The Sox have been involved in 11 games decided by one run, tied for the major league lead, and lead the majors with 17 games decided by two runs or less.
6:10 p.m.: Those coming to the park will be pleased to know that beer will be served. Among the restrictions due to the water emergency is no fountain soda, and your Fenway Franks will be cooked in bottled water. Not sure how that will affect the flavor, but things will be as close to normal as possible.
As for the Sox, nothing has been normal of late. Terry Francona talked at length about the team trying to do too much amid this 11-14 start. It starts at the top, Francona said.
"I'm part of this too. I don't exclude myself," Francona added. "We're all trying to reach. It's human nature, and I've caught myself doing it. We're in this together. I hope that never changes."
Francona was asked for an example of when he reached too far, and did allude to the Jason Varitek-Bill Hall situation Sunday in Baltimore. If you missed it, Varitek was on second base in the top of the eighth inning, the potential go-ahead run, and Victor Martinez was on the bench. Francona elected not to run for Varitek with Hall. Varitek was easily thrown out at home on a single, and the Sox lost two innings later.
"I've gone back probably every night and thought is this what I wanted to do," Francona said. "Yesterday is a good example. When the game's over, you sit there, and you go, 'We coulda run for Tek.'"
That's not to say Francona admitted a mistake, just that the run of extremely close games of late have caused every case of second-guessing to be that much more prominent. In his defense, he seemingly had committed to keeping Kevin Youkilis and Jeremy Hermida on the bench with their respective injuries. Therefore, if he put in Hall and the hit never came, then went to Martinez to take Varitek's place at catcher, then Francona was left with literally no bench in the eighth inning of a tie game.
It's likely many of you screamed at your TV sets for Hall to be in the game in that situation. Just not so sure it is that cut and dry.
"I think [the close games] magnify things," Francona added. "But you know what? I don't think I've ever been here and felt that losing is not the end of the world.That's part of what makes this place special. You show up, and every game means something, and it means something to us, too, and I don't want that to go away.
"We have a lot of responsibility here. We have great fans, there's a lot of attention from the media. Maybe losing is easier if there's two media members here or no fans. That's not what we're shooting for. We've got a special place to play."
It'll be more special if the club can string together some wins on what has become a very critical homestand in early May.
4:30 p.m.: It's an odd afternoon at Fenway Park. There are water restrictions, wild winds, threatening clouds and some elevators which won't work. Amid all that, here are the lineups for the Sox and Angels.
Boston
Marco Scutaro SS
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Victor Martinez C
Kevin Youkilis 1B
J.D. Drew RF
Mike Lowell DH
Adrian Beltre 3B
Bill Hall CF
Darnell McDonald LF
Los Angeles
Erick Aybar SS
Bobby Abreu DH
Torii Hunter CF
Kendry Morales 1B
Hideki Matsui LF
Juan Rivera RF
Maicer Izturis 3B
Howie Kendrick 2B
Mike Napoli C
Sox manager Terry Francona just met with reporters and said Youkilis is fine and the day off did wonders. He also indicated that outfielder Jeremy Hermida might be available to come off the bench, and possibly to start Tuesday. As for Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron, the wait continues.
Ellsbury has yet to graduate from hitting off the tee to hitting soft tosses, or flips, which would be the next step before getting him into the cage for actual batting practice. Cameron, who is just about eligible to come off the DL, has hinted that he might be ready to play in some minor league rehab games by the end of the week.
We will have more from Francona in a moment, some good stuff about what the club is going through right now.
8 a.m.: Clay Buchholz had a clutch win when the Red Sox most needed it last week in Toronto. They need him again Monday at Fenway Park when the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim come to town for the first of four straight.
The rematch of last year's ALDS series features a pair of teams on three-game losing streaks and struggling to find an identity.
Buchholz gave up just a run in eight dominant innings Tuesday in Toronto, lifting Boston to a 2-1 victory. That was part of the Sox' three-game sweep of the Blue Jays early in the week, a hot stretch wiped away when Boston lost three straight to Baltimore over the weekend.
First pitch is 7:10 p.m.
