Manny's misplay in loss makes 'bloopers for life'
Blunder helps Angels rout Red Sox 11-3; Anderson has 5 RBIs
![]() | Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez, left, attempts to dig the ball out from beneath him after not making the catch on a blooper hit by the Angels' Maicer Izturis on Friday. |
Gus Ruelas / AP |
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ANAHEIM, Calif. - The Boston Red Sox came out flat in their first game after the All-Star break and Garret Anderson went 4-for-4 and drove in five runs for the Los Angeles Angels in an 11-3 victory Friday night.
“I’ve been seeing the ball pretty good for a while now,” said Anderson, who is hitting .300 lifetime against Boston with 14 homers and 77 RBIs. “It’s time I’m getting some results for it. It was good to throw some runs on the board and apply some pressure to them.”
Manny Ramirez, whose defensive play in left field has always been a cause for concern for the Red Sox, misplayed what appeared to be a bloop RBI single by Maicer Izturis into a triple during a three-run sixth that extended the Angels’ lead to 11-3.
The 12-time All-Star made a futile dive for a ball he had no chance of catching, then stumbled as he went to retrieve it — and ended up rolling over onto the baseball. Ramirez finally relayed it back to the infield a few seconds later and broke into a huge grin that didn’t exactly mirror the pained expression on manager Terry Francona’s face.
“It’s not an error, but I think I made the bloopers for life,” Ramirez said. “I had a bad jump, but I still went for it. I missed the ball and that was it. I felt like I was swimming in a swamp right there.”
The Angels, going for their fourth AL West title in five years, bumped their division lead over Oakland to a season-best seven games with their major league-leading 58th victory. They are 20 games over .500 for the first time this year.
John Lackey (7-2) allowed three runs and five hits over seven innings and struck out six. The right-hander recorded his 1,000th strikeout when he fanned Kevin Youkilis in the fourth.
Youkilis and Ramirez homered for the Red Sox, who dropped into second place in the AL East with their eighth loss in 10 road games and Tampa Bay’s 2-1 win over Toronto.
Clay Buchholz (2-5) was charged with eight runs and eight hits in 4 2-3 innings in his second start since returning from the minors. Four of the runs against the right-hander were unearned, the result of a two-out fielding error by Alex Cora on Torii Hunter’s slow grounder to shortstop in the fifth.
“When Torii’s running, you’ve got to charge the ball,” Cora said. “I got the hop I wanted. On those kind of balls, you have to make sure that when you charge it, the ball is to your left. But it was to my right and I missed it. It changed the whole complexion of the game. They’re a pesky team, and when you open the door for them, they take advantage like they did tonight.”
Casey Kotchman scored on Cora’s error. Anderson followed with another RBI single that chased Buchholz, and Howie Kendrick added a two-run single against David Aardsma to make it 8-3.
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Buchholz is 0-3 with a 10.00 ERA in his last four starts. He made his big league debut against the Angels last Aug. 17 at Boston and beat Lackey 8-4. Two weeks later, he pitched a no-hitter against Baltimore in his next outing. But in 12 starts with the Red Sox since, he is 3-6 with a 5.28 ERA.
Buchholz threw 37 of his 83 pitches in the first inning while the Angels grabbed a 3-0 lead.
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