Red Sox 5, Angels 2

 

Jarren Duran got a haircut. The mullet is gone and I doubt anyone misses it. He took his hair all the way down to a buzzcut and then on top of that, dyed it blond. He looks like Eminem now. 

Even more unrecognizably, he hit a solo homer in the second inning to kick off Boston's scoring in the game. Later, he hit a double to go 2-for-4 on the day. 

Adley Rutschman also hit a homer in the second, a three-run blast to deep right field to make the score 4-0. Eli White singled to right center in the third scoring Caleb Durbin from third to make it 5-0.

Brayan Bello didn't get a haircut but he surprised everybody by getting through a first inning without a hit or a run. He went five shutout innings with seven strikeouts and four hits. After 103 pitches with no runs, Wyatt Olds relieved him in the sixth and gave up a homer to the Angels on his very first pitch. But Wyatt settled down and went two innings without any further hits and struck out five. Alec Gamboa gave up another run in the eighth to make the game a tad more interesting, but Garrett Whitlock closed it out in the ninth, and the Red Sox won, 5-2, their fifth straight victory and 80th of the season. . 

Once fourteen games under .500 earlier this season, the Red Sox are now fifteen games over .500 at 80-65. They trail New York, who was idle today, by two games in the Wild Card standings. The Yankees will face the woeful Rockies (55-88) and then the Mets (66-78) this week, so it's imperative that Boston keeps its steak going against the Angels (54-90) and the Royals (64-81) so as not to lose any ground in the Wild Card race. 

Game two of the home series with the Halos is tonight (6:45) with Patrick Sandoval (1-4, 4.41) facing his former team for the very first time. Reid Detmers (4-8, 3.44) will start for the Angels. Back on July 2, Detmers gave up five runs to the Sox, including a home run to Durbin and two RBI sac flies to Duran. 

The Red Sox carried Sandoval on the IL for a year and a half  after acquiring him from the Angels. It's time for Big Sandy to pay back the favor with a big win over L.A. tonight.