Pujols' three homers help Angels sweep doubleheader

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[July 21, 2015]  ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Albert Pujols' ascent through baseball history continued Monday, and the Los Angeles Angels are the better for it.

Pujols hit three home runs during a doubleheader sweep of the Boston Red Sox, the Angels winning the first game 11-1 and taking the second game 7-3. With it, the Angels completed a four-game series sweep and increased their lead in the American League West to two games over the idle Houston Astros.

After Sunday's game between the two teams was rained out -- the first rainout in Anaheim since June 16, 1995 -- the Angels braced for a long day, but it became easier when the Angels scored seven runs in the second inning of Game 1.

Pujols hit his first homer of the day in that inning, then added two more in the nightcap. He now has 549 career homers, moving past Mike Schmidt into 15th place on the all-time list.

The three extra-base hits in the games increased his career total to 1,138, passing Ty Cobb for 12th on the all-time list.
 


"It seems like every time Albert hits a home run, there's a Hall of Famer he's passing," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He's getting to some of the immortals now. Some of the guys who have made incredible footprints in our game, and he's going to be one of them eventually. Every time he hits one, you just wonder who he's catching now."

Manny Ramirez, with 555 career homers, is next on the list. For now, Pujols says he's concerned with helping the team win.

"I enjoy it because today I was able to do something to help my ballclub win," said Pujols, who went 4-for-7 with a walk and four RBIs in the two games. "To be able to pass Mike Schmidt is pretty special to me because I remember when I was a rookie he came around to the Cardinals camp because he's a really good friend of Tony La Russa. He spoke to our ballclub and I got to know him."

While Pujols stole the show, the Angels continued to roll. They have won five in a row and 11 of their last 13. The Red Sox, however, are going in the opposite direction; they've lost six of seven and remain in last place in the AL East, 8 1/2 games behind the Yankees.

The Angels outscored the Red Sox in the series 22-4.

"We fully expected to come in and put together a better series than the way it played out," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "Tonight, after a tough first game, I thought we came out and swung the bats well (in Game 2), had a number of hard-hit balls hit right at people."

Only one of Boston's hard-hit balls did much damage. Two of Boston's runs came in the sixth inning of the second game when designated hitter David Ortiz homered off Angels starter Andrew Heaney. Before then, the Red Sox had scored one run in 32 innings against Angels pitching.

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Other than giving up the homer, Heaney was outstanding again. He went seven innings, gave up five hits, walked none and struck out four. Since being called up to replace the injured Jered Weaver, Heaney is 4-0 with a 1.57 ERA in four starts.

Boston's Game 2 starter, knuckleballer Steven Wright (3-3) got the loss after allowing six runs on six hits in three walks in five innings.

Already down 1-0, Wright found trouble in the third inning when the Angels scored four times on three walks, a hit batter and three singles, two of which didn't leave the infield.

"(Wright) was getting under some pitches that were staying up," Farrell said. "There was a lot of movement to the knuckleball tonight. He was trying to find a release point that would allow it to finish in the strike zone."

Trout hit a knuckleball for his 28th homer of the year leading off the fifth inning to put the Angels up 6-0.

The Angels won Game 1 of the doubleheader 11-1, thanks to a big inning, scoring seven runs in the second inning against Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez. Right fielder Kole Calhoun and Pujols hit home runs in the inning, and third baseman David Freese added a three-run homer in the fourth.

Angels starter Hector Santiago (7-4) gave up one run in five-plus innings to get the win.

NOTES: Mike Trout started Game 2 of the doubleheader as the Angels' designated hitter. He has started all of the Angels' 92 games this season, three of them at DH. ... Red Sox manager John Farrell said before Game 1 that 2B Dustin Pedroia would play in Game 1 but not Game 2 of the doubleheader. But Pedroia, who missed 15 games with a strained hamstring, was in the starting lineup for Game 2. ... The Red Sox offense snapped a string of 21 consecutive scoreless innings when 1B Mike Napoli drove in a run with a single in the fourth inning of Game 1.

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