BOSTON _ Matt Shoemaker's run as the Los Angeles Angels' unexpected ace tumbled to an unceremonious end Sunday afternoon, just as the Angels' unpredictable stay atop Boston and the baseball world did the same.
A day after rocking the Red Sox for 21 runs, the Angels were routed, 10-5, at Fenway Park. Shoemaker was never as sharp as he had been for six weeks running. The first pitch he threw was a down-the-middle fastball to Mookie Betts, taken for a strike. The first pitch he threw to Dustin Pedroia, Boston's next hitter, was a hanging slider that was whacked down the left-field line, foul. He fell behind 3-0 to David Ortiz after Xander Bogaerts doubled, but battled back to 3-2 and fired a sharp splitter to induce an out.
Shoemaker permitted five baserunners over the next three innings but stranded them all. In the fifth, though, he surrendered a one-out single to Mookie Betts, then gathered a groundout from Dustin Pedroia and was one out away from escaping another inning unscathed.
Instead, he walked Bogaerts and, on a first-pitch splitter, yielded a double to Ortiz. Hanley Ramirez followed with a double, and the Red Sox had three runs. Pitching coach Charles Nagy visited the mound. Jackie Bradley Jr. singled, scoring a fourth run.
Manager Mike Scioscia visited the mound. Jose Alvarez entered the game and walked Brock Holt. Sandy Leon doubled, Marco Hernandez singled, and Scioscia returned to the mound to replace Alvarez with J.C. Ramirez.
The free pass to Bogaerts was the second Shoemaker issued on the day, and the seventh since his remarkable run began May 21. In his last eight starts before Sunday, he had struck out 68 opponents and walked five. He had averaged more than seven innings a start and permitted 12 earned runs in total. On Sunday, he yielded five in the 4 2/3 innings.
The Angels ran into three outs on the bases in the first three innings. Yunel Escobar began the game with an ill-advised attempt to reach second base after he singled, getting thrown out by five feet. Mike Trout tried to take third on a wild pitch and was thrown out by two feet. And Jett Bandy was caught too far from second after Escobar laced a ball to center that Boston's Jackie Bradley Jr. caught.
Sean O'Sullivan opposed them. The 28-year-old was called up from triple-A Pawtucket to make the start; his track record was not good. Drafted and developed by the Angels, he has a career ERA above 6.00
The Angels did not score against him until the sixth inning, when they already trailed by seven runs. Andrelton Simmons singled off Bogaerts' glove and stole second. Escobar then singled through the infield to left, and the Angels scored three runs on doubles from Kole Calhoun and Albert Pujols.
They scored two more on three hits in the seventh, after which the Red Sox responded with three runs against Joe Smith. The Angels' six pitchers let Boston on base 21 times and retired them 24 times.
For the Angels, Saturday was paradise, the day everything went their way. They scored 21 runs and limited a good-hitting team to two.
Sunday, then, represented a return to the disappointing norm of their 2016 season. They've won 33 of 82 games.
