Reese McGuire had his best game yet, driving in five runs, while Tyler O’Neill smashed his third home run in the series, leading the Boston Red Sox to a 12-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday.
Pitcher Tanner Houck, now 2-0, was outstanding, pitching six shutout innings and striking out seven batters. He’s the first Boston pitcher this season to pitch at least six innings with seven or more strikeouts in each of his first two games.
“It was a good day and a great road trip,” said manager Alex Cora about Houck’s performance. “He threw strikes, he moved the ball around and made pitches. We needed him to go deeper than five innings, and he did just that.”
David Hamilton and Rafael Devers also hit home runs for Boston. The team wrapped up their 10-game road trip with a 7-3 record and will now play at home against Baltimore on Tuesday.
Angels’ star Mike Trout prevented a shutout in the eighth inning with his fourth home run of the season, a solo shot to left field.
McGuire’s big moment came in the sixth inning, when he hit a three-run homer, extending Boston’s lead to 7-0. He also drove in runs with a groundout in the eighth and a base hit in the ninth.
O’Neill, who joined the Red Sox from St. Louis, is now tied for the MLB lead in homers with five. He’s also the first Red Sox player to have at least five home runs and five walks in his first nine games with the team.
After hitting two home runs in Friday’s game, O’Neill added another with a solo shot in the third inning against Angels’ pitcher Chase Silseth. This marked the second time in three days that the Red Sox hit three home runs in an inning.
Hamilton, who was brought up from the minors on Saturday, hit his first major league homer in the third inning. His shot off Silseth’s pitch landed high on the out-of-town scoreboard above the right-center fence, bouncing back onto the field as he rounded the bases.
