The Angels found a way to put together something they haven’t had much of lately: a pair of wins in a row, and with it a rare series victory.
Los Angeles backed the night with a burst of power and held on late for a 6-3 win over the Boston Red Sox, taking two straight in the set. It was the kind of offensive outburst that felt out of character for this club, starting in the third inning when Zach Neto launched a three-run homer off Boston starter Jake Bennett to give the Angels an early cushion.
That was only the beginning. Jose Siri followed later in the same inning with a two-run blast, turning a 3-0 lead into a 5-0 runaway and forcing everyone watching to do a double take. The Angels kept it going in the fourth, when Denzer Guzman sent another Bennett offering to left field to make it 6-0.
Ryan Johnson handled the early portion on the mound for Los Angeles, and while he wasn’t sharp throughout, he was effective enough to keep Boston scoreless through four innings. The Red Sox then started to chip away with the same kind of power. Roman Anthony opened their scoring with a two-run homer in the fifth, and Wilyer Abreu added a solo shot in the sixth to cut the lead to 6-3.
From there, the Angels’ bullpen did enough to protect the advantage. Ryan Watson, Tyler Saucedo and Sammy Natera worked together to get six outs across the seventh and eighth innings and keep Boston from pulling any closer.
The ninth inning brought a little drama for Ben Joyce, who had to navigate a rally before finishing off the save. Jarren Duran walked after a strikeout and a fly ball, then Nate Eaton singled to score Duran and trim the margin to 6-4. That brought Roman Anthony back up as the tying run, but Joyce ended it with a fly ball to right and collected his fourth save of the season.
The win also means the Angels have finally strung together back-to-back victories, something they hadn’t done since August 11-13, when they swept the Texas Rangers in Anaheim.
Los Angeles is now 3-3 on the road trip and has won three of its last five, a stretch that counts as progress for a team that has needed it. The Angels get Thursday off before heading to Washington, D.C., for a weekend series against the Nationals.
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