First Felix Hernandez, now Jered Weaver; the Red Sox are off to a strong start in May. And while only a few of the runs actually came against the Angels' ace, there's no discounting the nine they put up on the scoreboard Monday.
The Sox did manage to mount more offense against Weaver than any other team this season, starting in the first inning when Kevin Youkilis singled in Jacoby Ellsbury.
The Angels struck back in the third and fifth innings, getting single runs of Clay Buchholz each time as the Red Sox' starter couldn't dodge every bullet. But the Sox responded, scoring again in the fifth. Carl Crawford doubled to get things started--joining the Sox in their early success in the month--and Jason Varitek walked before they both advanced on a ground out from Jacoby Ellsbury.
Up came Dustin Pedroia, and so began one amazing at bat. Weaver alternated between balls and strikes for the first four pitches for a 2-2 count. After Pedroia fouled off a pair of fastballs, he took ball number three to bring the count full. Weaver would deliver five more pitches only to see them fouled off, building his count up over 100. Finally, on the thirteenth pitch of the at bat, Pedroia swung at a fastball away, and knocked it right back where it came from, past Weaver and into center field to score both runners and give the Sox a 3-2 lead.
The real explosion came in the seventh inning, though. The Sox loaded the bases with only one out, and for the third time that night, found a hit with runners in scoring position, this time from Adrian Gonzalez, who doubled off the wall in center-left. Then another, as Kevin Youkilis did the same. Then a third, this one all the way over the Monster as David Ortiz picked up his third homer of the season.
When all was said and done, the score was 9-2, a lead not even Dan Wheeler could give away (try as he might).
The Red Sox won't have it much easier tomorrow, as Dan Haren and Jon Lester have a rematch of their game from the last series.