Three aces down, Red Sox are on a roll

It took a full month for the Boston Red Sox to get on track in 2011 but thankfully baseball seasons are way too long anyways.

For the third straight night they faced an ace last night in Dan Haren. Like Felix Hernandez and Jered Weaver before him, he was decent but he couldn't completely quiet Boston's offense in a 7-3 Red Sox (14-15) win at Fenway Park.

Jon Lester (4-1) showed that his early season struggles seem to be a thing of the past. The ace in Boston's rotation went seven innings, allowing six hits, one earned run with a walk and 11 strikeouts.

Haren (4-2) suffered his second loss to the Red Sox in less than two weeks. He went seven innings, allowing nine hits, four earned runs with eight strikeouts.

Boston's lineup produced double digit hits (12) for the second straight game. Adrian Gonzalez (2 RBIs), David Ortiz, Jed Lowrie, Marco Scutaro (2 RBIs) and Carl Crawford all had two hits in the win.

Mark Trumbo gave the Angels (16-14) their only lead of the game, with a solo homer in the top of the first.

Gonzalez knocked in Jacoby Ellsbury with an RBI single in the sixth and Lowrie put Boston ahead 2-1 with an RBI single later in the frame that scored Gonzalez.

Haren started to falter in the seventh as Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit an RBI double that drove in Crawford.

There's a reason the Red Sox are 15-1 (6-0 this season) in their last 16 games against the Angels since they find every conceivable way to beat them.

Gonzalez's solo homer in the eighth knocked Haren out of the game. Ortiz and Scutaro (two-run) broke it open with homers in the inning as Boston went ahead 7-1.

Jonathan Papelbon came on in a non-save situation and did what every closer has to do in such an event: shit the bed. Erick Aybar had an RBI double and Trumbo had a sacrifice fly.

On the plus side, Daniel Bard had a scoreless eighth on nine pitches.

It's raining now and supposed to rain tonight so we'll see if Josh Beckett vs. Ervin Santana takes place as scheduled.

Lestee outduels Haren, Red Sox hang on

Don't look now but the Boston Red Sox have won six out of their last seven and are inching closer to the .500 mark.

The Red Sox (8-11) won their third straight West Coast road game, 4-3 last night at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

Jon Lester (2-1) gave Boston six solid innings (4 hits, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts) before a high pitch count (111 pitches) forced him to depart. He left with the Red Sox up 4-0 and they hung on as their bullpen had to cobble together innings without ace reliever Daniel Bard (who had worked a ton lately).

Dan Haren (4-1) suffered his first loss of the 2011 season for the Angels (12-8). Haren also went six innings but he allowed five hits, four runs (two earned), three walks and six strikeouts.

Boston built a 4-0 lead based on some luck. Back in his rightful leadoff spot for a night, Jacoby Ellsbury delivered with an RBI single in the third which scored Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

The gift was in the fourth as Angels rookie center fielder Peter Bourjos dropped a fly ball by Carl Crawford. Jed Lowrie and J.D. Drew (2 hits) scored on the pivotal play.

Finally, Drew drove in Lowrie in the sixth with an RBI single.

Los Angeles got on the scoreboard in the seventh as Jeff Mathis hit an RBI single off Red Sox reliever Matt Albers, scoring Erick Aybar.

Bobby Abreu added an RBI single (scoring Howie Kendrick) in the eighth off Bobby Jenks and then he scored on Saltalamacchia's passed ball.

However, Papelbon was able to get his fifth save thanks to a very efficient night (11 of 12 pitches for strikes) that included a hit and a strikeout.

Daisuke Matsuzaka faces Ervin Santana tonight in game three of this series.

Ortiz bombs get Red Sox off to a good start in Disneyland

Last night in Anaheim, Clay Buchholz was back to his All-Star form and David Ortiz looked like the guy who won the 2010 Home Run Derby.

Buchholz (11-5) went seven innings, allowing one run on five hits with a walk and seven strikeouts and Ortiz hit two home runs as Boston (56-44) won 6-3 against the Los Angeles Angels (52-50).

Dan Haren's Angels debut was a dud as he had to leave in the fifth after Kevin Youkilis' (3 hits, stolen base) line drive went off his arm. He left the game with a contusion. Haren went 4.2 innings, allowing two runs on seven hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.

Bobby Abreu put LA up 1-0 in the first with a solo homer.

In his first game back in almost a month, Victor Martinez tied it up with an RBI single in the second inning.

Ortiz put his team in front with a solo homer in the third and then a clutch two-run shot in the eighth.

The 4-1 cushion came in handy as Scott Atchison served up a two-run bomb to Hideki Matsui (2 hits) in the eighth.

Jonathan Papelbon got the final four outs for his 23rd save of the season.

John Lackey makes his return to Angel Stadium of Anaheim tonight, facing Jered Weaver, who's leading the AL in strikeouts and is having a great season even though he somehow wasn't in the All-Star game in his home park.

Haren outduels Beckett as D-Backs win 2-1

Since baseball is so slow-paced by nature, it gives old-timers and rock-headed announcers plenty of time to get all whimsical. No sport has as many tired sayings as America's Pastime. One of my favorites is "good pitching always beats good hitting."

For one night at least, that was prophetic as the Arizona Diamondbacks led by Dan Haren outlasted Josh Beckett and the Boston Red Sox, 2-1 last night at Fenway.

Haren (8-4) was just a little bit better than Beckett and he had luck on his side. Haren went seven innings, giving up just two hits and a walk while striking out five.

Beckett (7-5) lasted eight innings but he gave up two runs on five hits with two walks and eight strikeouts.

Playing without Sean Casey (who started serving his three-game suspension), Boston (47-32) was in a pickle when Kevin Youkilis took a ball off his eye in between innings. A throw from Mike Lowell took a bad hop and struck Youk on the eye. He wasn't one of People's 50 most beautiful people to begin with but the shiner really added something to his ugly mug.

Youk had to depart so Brandon Moss came in and wouldn't you know, a big play revolved around his inexperience at first.

In the seventh, Chris Young had doubled in Conor Jackson to give Arizona (40-37) a 1-0 lead before Chris Snyder hit a grounder to first. Moss bobbled it-allowing Mark Reynolds the runner at third to score-before recovering and getting the out at first.

The Red Sox' offense finally awoke in the eighth, forcing D-Backs reliever Tony Pena to throw 26 pitches. J.D. Drew drove in Julio Lugo with a sacrifice fly to cut it to 2-1.

David Aardsma continued his fine recent work as he danced around two walks and a hit to strike out two and record a scoreless ninth.

Former Sox pitcher Brandon Lyon promptly recorded his 16th save of the season on five pitches.