Haren Scarin’
Were they so rushed to put up Dan Haren’s picture in Angels togs that they couldn’t find a hairbrush? With his unkempt hair he looks like a homeless man or a Nick Nolte mugshot.
Haren fell behind in the second inning after surrendering a leadoff triple to Adrian Beltre and allowing a line drive RBI single to Victor Martinez. His Angels debut came to an abrupt end in the fifth when Kevin Youkilis starched a comebacker off the starter’s throwing arm. He fared fairly well in his return to American League hitting: 4⅔ innings, 7 hits, 2 earned runs, no walks, and 8 strikeouts. He was replaced by Francisco Rodriguez. Not this one, the other one. Tony Reagins should have kept both of them just to fool Ed Wade in a deal.
The return of Martinez as the Red Sox backstop along with David Ortiz’s continued production are two keys opening the gateway to Boston’s path to the playoffs.
One theory that gained currency was that the winner of the Home Run Derby would go on to have a terrible season, something that happened to Bobby Abreu after he won in 2005. In fact, his power outage extended into 2006. David Ortiz only hit one homer since the All-Star break but slammed two circuit clouts in the series opener. His third-inning shot just cleared the right field fences and granted his team the lead and his eighth-inning dinger extended the lead by two runs.
That margin helped absorb the damage by Hideki Matsui’s two-run home run reply in the bottom of the frame. J.D. Drew would give Jonathan Papelbon some breathing room in the top of the ninth with his two-RBI double that just missed being a homer.
| Game 100: July 26, 2010 | ||
 Red Sox56-44 | 6 | W: Clay Buchholz (11-5) H: Scott Atchison (2) S: Jonathan Papelbon (23) |
| 2B: Jed Lowrie (1), J.D. Drew (20) 3B: Adrian Beltre (2) HR: David Ortiz – 2 (21) | ||
| Angels 52-50 | 3 | L: Dan Haren (7-9) |
| HR: Bobby Abreu (11), Hideki Matsui (14) | ||
