Angels shed struggles by blowing out Boston

Los Angeles scores 11 runs in seventh inning

BOSTON — Angels pitcher Hector Santiago was sitting in the dugout during his team’s 11-run seventh inning Saturday when he showed teammate Daniel Nava something new painted on his left cleat.

“Look at these, bro,” he recalled telling Nava, pointing down to a shoe a friend brought him for the game. It had the Rally Monkey — a staple of the club’s home games — airbrushed on the side.

Expect Santiago to keep wearing the new spikes.

C.J. Cron went 6 for 6 with two homers and five RBIs, Carlos Perez had five hits and drove in six and Los Angeles walloped the Boston Red Sox 21-2 to end a four-game losing streak.

Albert Pujols hit his 575th career homer — a two-run shot — and had five RBIs for the Angels, who had lost 10 of their last 11 games.

“There’s no doubt a game like this is fun,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “It comes at a good time just to hopefully get a little momentum going and hopefully we’ll carry it over to tomorrow.”

Cron and Perez each homered during the 11-run seventh. They are the first set of teammates with at least five hits and five RBIs in the same game since Gene Moore and Buck Jordan for the Boston Braves in 1936, according to ESPN.

“We were sitting down: me, Nava and (Jhoulys) Chacin,” Santiago said. “We were saying ‘We’re not moving.’ That was awesome, man. We needed that. That was awesome to watch.”

It’s the sixth time the Angels reached 20 runs, the last coming against Kansas City on Aug. 25, 2004. The club record for runs is 24, set at Toronto on Aug. 25, 1979.

The 21 runs matched Los Angeles’ combined output from its past six games, and the Angels’ 22 hits were the most for the franchise since a 17-8 win over Baltimore on Aug. 16, 2009.

Mookie Betts had a solo homer and three hits for Boston, which won the series opener after losing four of five.

Red Sox outfielder Ryan LaMarre pitched the ninth, giving up no runs and two hits.

“Honestly, we’re embarrassed by tonight’s ball game,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “There’s really no other way to put it. We got kicked around the ballpark tonight.”

Santiago (5-4) got the win, holding the majors’ highest scoring team to one unearned run and four hits over six innings.

Clay Buchholz gave up six runs — three earned — in 4 1/3 innings.

With Los Angles leading 4-0 in the fifth, Perez’s three-run double capped a five-run inning that broke it open. Buchholz (3-9) was lifted with runners on first and second with one out.

Travis Shaw then fired high to second for an error on a probable double-play grounder by Pujols, with the relay late to first. One out later, Cron hit his two-run single.

Johnny Giavotella singled to reload the bases before Perez cleared them with a double off the center-field wall.

MICHAEL DWYER/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Los Angeles’ Carlos Perez (58) celebrates his two-run home run during the seventh inning of a game against the Red Sox in Boston on Saturday. The Angels scored 11 runs in the seventh and won the game 21-2.