Orange County Register

The Angels, leading 5-0, are 98 percent likely to win. They score two in the seventh despite Juan Rivera’s rally-crippling double play. Just noticed, Juan Rivera has an OPS in the .600s since Aug. 1.

The Angels got their second gift call from first base umpire C.B. Bucknor in the sixth. Guess Boston’s umpire-mind-control doesn’t work outside Fenway. Amy K. Nelson of ESPN tweets that Bucknor’s Wikipedia was momentarily altered: “During the off-season, Bucknor, who is legally blind, speaks at the Helen Keller Institute for Sensory Impaired Children.” Ha!

Boston’s Jon Lester has a quality start, but leaves in line to take the loss. Both teams combined to go 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position, until the Angels came up with three RISP hits in the seventh. Neither team has taken advantage of the other’s catcher, as there have been no official stolen-base attempts. (The Red Sox are the worst in the AL at throwing runners out; Angels tied for second-worst.)

Bobby Abreu: 0 for 0, four walks, sees 25 pitches. A stathead’s heart flutters. I’m dangerously close to quitting my job and stalking him.

A continuation of the earlier tension between these teams? Torii Hunter hit in the ribs on the first pitch after his fifth inning home run.

Ramon Ramirez is the first Red Sox reliever out of the pen, in a game Boston trails by three. So that maybe tells you a bit about where Ramirez ranks in Terry Francona’s depth chart. Here’s a hunch how he ranks his relievers:

1. Papelbon
2. Wagner
3. Okajima
4. Saito
5. Bard
6. Ramirez
7. Byrd

After loading the bases and retiring nobody, Ramirez (who has a terrible platoon split) might have dropped to seventh. Or eighth?

Lackey was one out away from finishing the sixth with a three-run lead when he lost his aim, throwing seven straight balls before getting a very generous strike call against Youkilis. That straightened him out and he got out of the inning on a nice play by Chone Figgins. He follows up with his best inning of the game, keeping Boston from putting a ball in fair play and striking out two in the seventh.  He strikes out four and gets five groundouts in the past four innings, and would enter the eighth with 109 pitches if Scioscia lets him continue. He’s still hitting 93 mph.

Six outs to go. Lackey back out there in the 8th? Ervin Santana gets a shot in his new role? Kevin Jepsen bridges to Fuentes? Fuentes gets shipped to Siberia and the previous three finish this one off? We’ll see. With a five-run lead, my hunch is Lackey goes back out with a short leash.

Here are all the tweets, and here are mine.

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