ANAHEIM – (Wire Service Report) – Boston’s Sonny Gray allowed a run and four hits in six innings and Willson Contreras and Romy Gonzalez hit home runs as the Red Sox routed the Los Angeles Angels 8-1 on Saturday night in California.
Wilyer Abreu added two RBIs and scored two runs for the Red Sox, who have won the first two games of the series.
Josh Lowe homered for the Angels, who lost their fifth in a row.
Gray (10-1, 2.61 ERA) walked two and struck out seven. Neither he nor Contreras (19 HR, 56 RBI, .285 batting average, .914 OPS) were among the All-Star Game participants announced earlier in the day.
Los Angeles starter Sam Aldegheri (3-4) gave up three runs and one hit in four innings with four walks and two strikeouts.
Contreras’ three-run homer in the first inning gave Boston a 3-0 lead.
He belted Aldegheri’s 2-1 changeup an estimated 421 feet into the left field stands. Anthony Seigler and Abreu, who had both walked, scored ahead of Contreras.
Lowe’s solo homer in the second put the Angels on the board and made it 3-1. He drove Gray’s first-pitch cutter high over the center field fence an estimated 437 feet. It was Lowe’s seventh homer of the season.
Los Angeles had runners on first and second with one out later in the inning, but Gray struck out Donovan Walton and Tyler Heineman.
Boston put the game out of reach with four runs in the fifth for a 7-1 lead. Abreu hit a two-run double and Gonzalez lofted a two-run homer just inside the foul pole in left for his first home run.
All four runs came off of reliever Samy Natera Jr.
Ceddanne Rafaela doubled in a run in the eighth for the final margin.
Relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman and starter Ranger Suarez were selected for the All-Star Game for Boston and Los Angeles outfielder Mike Trout, who is on the injured list with a hamstring injury, was picked as a starter for the game in Philadelphia on July 14.
–Field Level Media