The Boston Red Sox improved to 3-1 on their West Coast trip on Monday night, holding off the Los Angeles Angels 5-4 in an opener of a three game series at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California.
Christian Arroyo in his first at bat off the injured list hit a solo homerun to left center field in the top of the second inning, and Rafael Devers added an RBI single to make it 2-0 Boston. After Los Angeles (42-42) cut it to 2-1, Devers smacked a long two-run homer to right center in the fourth to extend the Sox lead. Danny Santana made it 5-1 with an RBI single in the fifth. An RBI groundout by David Fletcher in the bottom half of the fifth, and a solo homer by Jose Rojas in the seventh cut the Angels deficit to 5-3. Rojas singled in Jose Iglesias in the bottom of the ninth against Adam Ottavino, and the hosts had the tying run at second and winning run at first with Shohei Ohtani up to bat with two outs. Ottavino though would retire Ohtani on a sharp grounder to Arroyo in the shift to end the game.
Martin Perez (7-4) was strong for a second straight time on the mound in getting the win allowing two runs (one earned) on eight hits with one walk and three strikeouts in 5.1 innings. Hirokazu Sawumara and Josh Taylor both picked up a hold, and Ottavino got his seventh save. Devers had three hits and three RBI to lead the offense. Jose Suarez (3-2) took the loss for Los Angeles in his first start of the season allowing two runs on three hits in 3.0 innings. Rojas had three hits, while Fletcher and Iglesias had two each. Boston improves to 54-32. Game two is Tuesday night at 9:38 p.m. The Sox send RHP Nathan Eovaldi (9-4, 3.41 ERA) to the hill against RHP Ohtani (3-1, 3.60) for the Angels.
