The Boston Red Sox made a quick exit from Baltimore and look to keep up their winning ways in a three-game series against the visiting Los Angeles Angels beginning on Monday afternoon.
The Red Sox (79-65) just pulled off a four-game sweep of the Orioles, pitching back-to-back shutouts before capping the series with a 3-1 win Sunday.
After Ranger Suarez and Sonny Gray both threw seven shutout innings in the previous two games, Payton Tolle struck out 12 over six innings, standing up teammate Eli White’s three-run home run in the second inning.
“It was an amazing performance by our pitching staff for four days. It was awesome,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said. “Tolle was fantastic, and the guys coming out of the pen were awesome.”
Aroldis Chapman closed the series, becoming the ninth pitcher in major league history to reach the 400-save plateau for his career.
“To be that elite for as long as he’s been elite is cool to watch,” Tolle said.
White started in center field in place of Ceddanne Rafaela, who was placed on the 10-day injured list Sunday with a right quadriceps strain after missing each of the first three games in Baltimore.
White, a trade-deadline acquisition from Atlanta, is 7-for-19 with eight RBIs in his last six games.
“The first thing you think of if (Rafaela) goes down … you have a really fast, good defensive outfielder that can go out there. But he has hit as well,” Tracy said.
With the Red Sox looking to give their starters an extra day of rest, Tracy said that Brayan Bello (5-7, 5.07 ERA) is “likely” to start Monday.
It would be Bello’s first start since June 4, when he allowed eight runs in a five-inning outing against the Orioles and was then optioned to Triple-A Worcester. The 27-year-old allowed eight runs in 7 1/3 innings in his two most recent relief appearances but has had much more success as a reliever (4-1, 2.03) than as a starter (1-6, 10.35) this season.
Bello is 1-2 with a 5.14 ERA in four career starts against the Angels.
The Angels (54-89), whom the Red Sox swept in a three-game road set in July, have now dropped five straight series and 11 of their last 13 games following their second 1-0 loss in three days to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.
Despite the Sunday loss to Pirates ace Paul Skenes, 22-year-old rookie Walbert Urena allowed just three hits and a walk over eight innings, which tied for the team’s longest start this season.
“It’s nice to get your starting pitchers wins,” outfielder Wade Meckler said after left-hander Yusei Kikuchi’s six scoreless innings in a 6-1 win on Saturday. “Our starters have been throwing the ball well the last couple of weeks and haven’t been getting wins.”
“(Urena has) been incredible, and he keeps getting better,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said.
Next, Los Angeles turns the ball to Grayson Rodriguez (4-6, 6.03) for his fourth career start against Boston. The first three came with Baltimore during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, when the right-hander went a combined 0-2 with a 4.50 ERA.
Rodriguez is coming off a loss to the New York Yankees on Tuesday, when he allowed four runs on seven hits while striking out seven in six innings. He had allowed no more than three earned runs in any of his prior six starts, though the Angels won just one of them.
Suzuki and the Angels appear to have dodged a bullet regarding the status of three-time American League MVP Mike Trout, who returned to the lineup on Sunday after leaving the previous day’s game when he was hit in the hand by a pitch.
Returning to his typical No. 2 spot in the lineup, Trout went 2-for-4 with a double on which Zach Neto was thrown out at home plate attempting to score.
–Field Level Media
