Pitching woes derail Angels in home-opening loss to Boston Red Sox
Jarren Duran hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning, Tyler O’Neill had two home runs and the Boston Red Sox beat the Angels 8-6 Friday night for their fifth consecutive victory.
O’Neill, Triston Casas and Reese McGuire all connected in the second inning of a five-homer game for streaking Boston, with O’Neill and Casas homering on consecutive pitches by Griffin Canning.
The Red Sox blew two late leads with shoddy defense and mediocre relief pitching, but Duran put Boston ahead late with his first homer of the season. O’Neill added another solo shot in the ninth as the Red Sox improved their best start since 2018 to 6-2 — all on the West Coast.
“We didn’t stop playing, and that’s a good sign,” manager Alex Cora said. “We talk about last year ... when we didn’t compete at a certain level to be successful. Regardless of the pitches and the walks and the errors, we kept competing.”
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Logan O’Hoppe hit his first career grand slam for the Angels, whose four-game winning streak ended in their home opener.
After the Angels rallied to tie the game in the sixth and seventh, Duran hit a 105 mph line drive to center off José Soriano (0-1).
Duran, who attended Cypress High School 15 minutes from Angel Stadium before playing at nearby Long Beach State, said his friends and family numbered “too many to count. ... (They) took up like most of the right-field line, but it was awesome to see them all smiling.”
The 27-year-old outfielder also had an RBI single in the sixth for Boston.
“I think it’s my first hit here,” Duran said. “I’ve put so much pressure on myself, because there’s been people that haven’t ever seen me get a hit in person, like my (college) roommates. I’m glad I got at least one of those out of the way for them, so that was pretty fun.”
Chris Martin (1-0) allowed two hits and a run in the seventh for Boston, snapping his streak of 24 scoreless appearances dating to last season.
Kenley Jansen pitched the ninth for his third save this season and the 423rd of his career, breaking a tie with Billy Wagner for sixth place in MLB history and moving one behind John Franco for fifth.
Boston lost shortstop Trevor Story to a shoulder injury in the fourth inning when he dived to make a stop on Mike Trout’s hard-hit grounder. Story backhanded the ball, but was left writhing in pain on the outfield grass when he landed hard on his left arm and shoulder.
Story will undergo an MRI exam Saturday, but he was somber in the clubhouse afterward. He said it was “hard to tell” if he had dislocated his shoulder on the play.
“Obviously did something to the shoulder there,” said Story, who played in only 43 games last season after recovering from right elbow surgery. “Pretty painful. ... Not trying to put any words on it yet, because we don’t know for sure. Just kind of landed all the body weight on the shoulder there. Didn’t feel good.”
Canning yielded four runs while tossing five-hit ball into the fifth inning for the Angels. Kutter Crawford pitched four innings of one-hit ball for Boston before fading in the fifth.
After failing to homer in their weekend series at Oakland, the Red Sox went deep early and often in Anaheim. O’Neill hit his third homer of the young season leading off the second, and Casas immediately followed with his first. Six pitches later, McGuire added a two-run shot.
The Angels know it’ll be tough to overcome Shohei Ohtani’s absence, but Mike Trout is staying optimistic about the team’s playoff chances.
“We got off to a slow start,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “That second inning got to us early, but Canning settled down, and then we couldn’t put a shutdown inning from the sixth on. ... But they showed what they’re made of.”
The Angels chased Crawford in the fifth on Nolan Schanuel’s bases-loaded walk.
The Red Sox then committed back-to-back errors to open the bottom of the sixth, and O’Hoppe eventually cleared the bases with a 407-foot grand slam into the ficus trees beyond center field.
Anthony Rendon beat out an infield single later in the sixth to end his 0-for-21 start to the fifth season of his seven-year, $245 million contract.
Boston went back ahead in the seventh on Enmanuel Valdez’s sacrifice fly before Miguel Sanó tied it with his first RBI for the Angels.
Up next: Reid Detmers (1-0, 1.80 ERA) takes the mound Saturday for the Angels against Garrett Whitlock (1-0, 1.80) in a meeting of two starters coming off strong season debuts.
Greg Beacham writes for the Associated Press.
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