• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Red Sox shoot for sweep of Angels

Apr 24, 2011 - 3:30 PM (Sports Network) - The Boston Red Sox have the brooms ready for the LA Angels of Anaheim this afternoon, when they shoot for a four-game sweep of the hosting Halos from the Big A.

Boston has won four straight, seven of eight games and improved to 4-1 on a nine-game road trip with Saturday's 5-0 blanking of the Angels behind eight scoreless innings from Daisuke Matsuzaka. Dice-K allowed just one hit and struck out nine batters to even his mark at 2-2.

"He threw strikes, changed speeds and that was fun to watch," said Boston manager Terry Francona. "He's given up only two hits in a bunch of innings and I hope he can build off this."

Daniel Bard allowed a hit, but struck out a pair of Angels in the ninth inning to preserve the shutout. Kevin Youkilis hit a two-run homer, while Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Jason Varitek each drove in a run in the win.

The Red Sox will visit Baltimore for three games on the trek and will hand today's pitching duties over to former Anaheim ace John Lackey. Lackey departed the City of Angels for New England last season and spent seven years with the Angels. Lackey, who went 14-11 with a 4.40 ERA for Boston in 2010, is only 1-2 in three starts this season to go with a 9.82 earned run average.

Lackey suffered a tough-luck loss at Oakland on Tuesday, when he fired six innings of one-run ball in a 5-0 loss. His lone win this season came on April 8 versus the despised New York Yankees in his only home start at Fenway Park. The right-hander handled his former Angel teammates quite well last season, going 3-0 with a 3.38 ERA in three starts.

Anaheim entered this series with Boston having won two straight and seven of eight games. Unfortunately, the offense hasn't come alive in this set and registered just two hits on Saturday.

Alberto Callaspo and Erick Aybar supplied the hits for the Angels, who couldn't seem to solve Matsuzaka.

"Fastball, changeup, breaking ball, splitter ... everything worked for him," Angels shortstop Erick Aybar said. "He threw a lot of strikes. That's the best I've seen him pitch."

The Angels, 0-3 on a seven-game homestand, saw starter Ervin Santana fall to 0-3 on the season after he surrendered all five runs and nine hits in seven innings. Santana had nine K's in defeat.

Taking the mound for the Halos in Sunday's series finale will be right-hander Matt Palmer. Palmer is 1-0 with a 4.22 ERA in just two starts this season and defeated Texas the last time out in Tuesday's 15-4 drubbing. Palmer held the Rangers to a run and three hits over six innings.

Palmer is 1-0 with a 7.30 earned run average in three career games (1 start) against the Red Sox.

Boston has won 12 of its last 13 meetings with the Angels.