(Photo credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images)
In the midst of a four-game losing streak, the Los Angeles Angels now must face one of the hottest starting pitchers in baseball in Boston’s Sonny Gray on Saturday night.Gray (9-1, 2.69 ERA) hasn’t lost a game since April 14 at Minnesota and is 7-0 with a 2.08 ERA in his last 10 starts. He comes in off a 5-4 victory over the New York Yankees on Sunday night that saw him throw 7 1/3 no-hit innings before yielding a sinking line drive single to Amed Rosario.It was the deepest no-hit bid of Gray’s career, and the longest by a Red Sox pitcher since Garrett Crochet also tossed 7 1/3 hitless innings against the Chicago White Sox on April 13, 2025.’God, it was really good,’ Boston interim manager Chad Tracy said. ‘It really was. I legitimately thought he was gonna do it.’Gray also struck out nine to hit the 2,000 mark for his career.’It was cool, but I was just trying to win the game,’ Gray said of the no-hit bid. ‘I just felt really focused. I wanted to come and win the game. We did that.’Gray, tied for the American League lead in wins with nine, is 6-5 with a 3.92 ERA in 18 career appearances (17 starts) against the Angels.Boston started the series and a nine-game road trip with a 5-2 victory on Friday. Rookie left-hander Jake Bennett opened the contest with 4 1/3 perfect innings and allowed two runs on five hits over 7 2/3 frames while striking out six.Aroldis Chapman picked up his 17th save and fanned Denzer Guzman to open the bottom of the ninth with a 98-mph sinker for his 1,364th career strikeout, breaking the all-time reliever strikeout record set by Hall of Fame knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm.’I feel very happy, very proud with what I’ve been able to accomplish,’ Chapman said through an interpreter. ‘I just feel very satisfied right now.’Chapman accomplished the feat in 890 games while Wilhelm set the mark in 1,018 relief appearances.Left-hander Sam Aldegheri (3-3, 4.85) will make his 11th career start for Los Angeles. Aldegheri allowed one run on five hits and struck out four over five innings in picking up the win in a 4-1 victory over the Athletics on Sunday.Aldegheri will be making his second career appearance against the Red Sox. He was charged with a blown save when he allowed two unearned runs in 2 1/3 innings in a 11-9 loss on June 4 last season at Boston.The Angels could be without starting catcher Logan O’Hoppe for the contest. O’Hoppe, who has battled concussion issues in the past, left Saturday’s game dazed in the third inning after taking a foul tip off his mask. He still was being evaluated after the game.’I think this may have been the third one in three or four days,’ Los Angeles manager Kurt Suzuki, a longtime big league catcher, said of the foul ball off the mask. ‘Definitely not ideal. We don’t really know yet. We’ve got to kind of see what the tests show with the doctor. After the doctor looks at him, we’ve got to see where we’re at.’
-Field Level Media