When needed, they come up short in loss
Angels 2 Red Sox 1
ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Red Sox announced 46 minutes before first pitch against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday night that Trevor Story had been placed on the 10-day injured list because of a dislocated left shoulder.
What followed was a sobering example of just how much the Sox will miss their shortstop.
A misplay by backup shortstop Pablo Reyes led to the Angels coming back to beat the Sox, 2-1.
The Sox are 6-3 on a season-opening road trip that ends Sunday afternoon.
On a night when they pitched well enough to win, the Sox were held to three hits, struck out 14 times, and allowed two unearned runs. That was more than enough to snap a five-game win streak.
Garrett Whitlock was not efficient but pitched 4‚ scoreless innings, working around four hits and four walks.
The Sox had a 1-0 lead with two outs in the sixth inning when the next five Angels reached base on two singles, two walks and an error.
Down only by a run, the Sox did not manage another hit as three Angels relievers locked the game down. Carlos Estévez finished it off for his third save.
The last eight Sox batters went in order.
The Sox looked lost in the first two innings as Angels lefthander Reid Detmers struck out six of the first seven batters he faced. The exception was Tyler O’Neill, who drew a walk.
The Sox got their offense going to at least some degree in the third inning.
Connor Wong led off with a double to the gap in left. He went to third when Enmanuel Valdez grounded to first and scored on Jarren Duran’s soft single to left field.
But with a chance for more, Duran was thrown out stealing second and Pablo Reyes struck out.
Rafael Devers led off the fourth inning with a single but Detmers struck out O’Neill looking at a slider, retired Bobby Dalbec on a grounder to shortstop, and struck out Triston Casas swinging at a slider.
The Angels put runners on first and second with two outs in the fourth inning against Whitlock. Mickey Moniak followed with a sharply hit ball to the right side. Valdez made a diving stop and fired to Casas at first base to end the inning.
Whitlock could not get out of his own trouble in the fifth inning.
Zach Neto led off with a single and stole second after an out call by umpire Phil Cuzzi was overturned by a replay challenge.
Nolan Schanuel, an incredibly patient hitter for a 22-year-old rookie, drew a walk and Whitlock was done after 101 pitches.
Greg Weissert came out of the bullpen to face Mike Trout. The Angels star drove a breaking ball to left field and Duran saved a run with a diving catch.
Taylor Ward followed with a fly ball to right field to end the inning.
Cuzzi had another call overturned in the sixth inning when replay showed Luis Rengifo stole second with two outs. Moniak drew a walk to extend the inning and the Sox went to Isaiah Campbell.
He did his job, getting Neto to ground to shortstop. But Reyes was too slow getting the ball to second base for the force and Moniak was safe to load the bases and extend the inning.
The mistake came back to change the game.
Anthony Rendon grounded a twostrike slider to third base. Devers appeared too deep to have a play but the ball got past him and two runs scored on the error to give the Angels a 2-1 lead.
Detmers allowed one run on three hits and struck out 12 with one walk over six innings.
Jansen eyes 500
Kenley Jansen arrived at Angel Stadium with 423 career saves, sixth all time, one behind John Franco.
Jansen needs 15 saves to pass Francisco Rodriguez (437) and move into fourth place.
Only Hall of Famers Mariano Rivera (652), Trevor Hoffman (601), and Lee Smith (478) would then be ahead of Jansen.
The 36-year-old righthander has bigger goals than moving up the leaderboard a little.
“I want 500 saves,” Jansen said after pitching a perfect ninth inning to finish off the Red Sox’ 8-6 victory against the Angels on Friday night. “That would be a good number.”
Jansen averaged 36 saves from 2021-23 with the Dodgers, Braves, and Red Sox. So it’s possible he could reach 500 by the end of the 2025 season.
But there are warning signs. Jansen averaged only 90.7 miles per hour with his signature cutter Friday night. That’s well off the 94.3 he averaged last season.
Jansen threw six cutters to Trout, the leadoff hitter in the inning. The first five were between 88.2-89.9 m.p.h. Jansen hit 91.8 with the final pitch and Trout flew out to right.
Jansen attributes the drop in velocity to making only four appearances in spring training because of injuries, specifically the sore lower back he has been dealing with on the road trip.
“I have work to do,” Jansen acknowledged. “I’m not where I need to be. But I’ll get there.”
Friday was the third time Jansen had pitched in four days. Manager Alex Cora hasn’t taken it easy with his closer. “The cutter was really good [Friday],” Cora said. “I know everyone was talking about the velocity with the cutters to Trout, but the action was good and you saw what happened at the end.”
Houck takes turn
The Sox finish their 10-game road trip Sunday afternoon with Tanner Houck starting against righthander
Chase Silseth.
Houck faced Oakland on Monday and had one of the best starts of his career, throwing six shutout innings. He allowed three hits and struck out 10 without a walk.
The 10 strikeouts matched Houck’s career high from his third big league game in 2020.
Houck is 1-1 with a 6.28 earned run average in four career appearances against the Angels. He started twice against them last season and allowed three earned runs over 10 innings with 14 strikeouts.
Silseth, 23, faced the Sox for two innings in relief last season. He allowed four runs (three earned) at Miami on Monday.
Next man up
Cora was somber Friday night when discussing Story’s injured left shoulder. Seeing his shortstop depart in the fourth inning after diving for a ball was hard to watch.
“That’s the tough part of this job,” Cora said. “You try not to get attached emotionally with players. But they’re human beings. For three hours they’re baseball players, but before that we talk about a lot of stuff and you get attached to them because you know the work they put in. This kid has done everything right, everything possible to post for more than 150 games.”
Story told Cora before the season that his goal was to play at least 150155 games after two injury-filled seasons.
Story was put on the 10-day injured list with what was described as a dislocation. Infielder David Hamilton was called up from Triple A Worcester.
Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow offered no timetable on Story other than to say more information is expected once he sees associate head team orthopedist Evan O’Donnell in Boston on Monday.
Angry bunch
The Angels played a lengthy video of franchise highlights on the scoreboard as part of the home opener festivities before the game Friday. The crowd booed the clips showing Shohei Ohtani. Rendon also was booed. He has hit .242 with a .740 OPS since agreeing to a seven-year, $245 million contract before the 2020 season . . . Tyler O’Neill hit four home runs in his first 22 atbats. He had nine in 238 at-bats last season . . . Devers was hit on the top of the right hand by a pitch in the fifth inning Friday. He left the park with his hand and wrist in a wrap but avoided any broken bones. Devers could avoid such injuries by wearing a batting glove with more padding, but he’s tried them and doesn’t like how they feel . . . Cora ran 17 miles Saturday morning with his partner Angelica as part of her training for the Boston Marathon. “This is what we’re doing,” Cora said. “If people want to join us, hey, do it. Post it on Instagram. We’ll do a challenge or something for the [Red Sox] Foundation.” Cora is running his first 5K race before the Sox host the Angels next Saturday.