Weekly Red Sox Hitter Notes: July 22

By Adam Lowenstein (@StatsAdam)

Well, those Los Angeles run totals escalated quickly at Angel Stadium on Monday.

The Angels scored the first seven runs of the first game of the doubleheader, en route to their 11-1 victory. Then, later in the evening, Albert Pujols and Mike Trout led the way to six straight Angel runs before the Red Sox scored in the second game.

The sweep at the hands of Los Angeles pushed Boston nine games below .500, and nine games behind the first-place New York Yankees. Boston’s horrific pitching performance against the Angels pushed the ERA of John Farrell’s squad to an American League-worst 4.45 on the season. I’m sure Cole Hamels can change all that.

CF Mookie Betts, ouch. There are a lot of zeros in his box score since taking some time off for the All-Star break. On the bright side, he finally drew a walk after going 0-for-16 with five strikeouts to start the four-game series against the Angels.

2B Dustin Pedroia had a very ugly performance against the Angels in his second series against them in 2015. Although Pedroia went 5-for-12 in his first series against Los Angeles this season, he is 0-for-14 with a walk since returning from his hamstring injury.

SS Xander Bogaerts had three multi-hit games in the series. He has just one hitless game in July, and it came on Saturday. Bogaerts bounced back to go 4-for-6 in the doubleheader with a run scored and a run batted in.

DH David Ortiz has been one of very few Red Sox to find success since the All-Star break. He continued to hit the ball well, as he collected five hits, including a home run, in his 15 at-bats.

LF Hanley Ramirez, who has struggled to get on base when his team has been trailing over the last two seasons, did not perform well in the four-game series that saw the Red Sox trail a large amount. He posted a 0-for-14 stat line in the series.

3B Pablo Sandoval had two multi-hit games against the Angels, but he made a frustrating error that allowed the runs to continue to accumulate against the Red Sox. After having just 11 errors in 2014, he committed his 12th in the fourth inning of the first game of the doubleheader. It led to all four of Noe Ramirez’s unearned runs that inning.

1B Mike Napoli, who started three of the four games at Angel Stadium, bounced back from his 0-for-3 game on Friday to get three hits in his seven at-bats during the doubleheader. His average and on-base percentages are .003 away from getting to .200 and .300, respectively.

RF Shane Victorino started three of the four games in which lefty Angels starters toed the mound. His three hits in 10 at-bats did not drive any runs in, but the Red Sox are in need of baserunners, so he will continue to platoon with Alejandro De Aza.

C Ryan Hanigan did not get a hit during the series against the Angels, but he got another couple of walks. He has just three games without a walk in July.

BN/Utility Man Brock Holt, the Red Sox’s only all star in 2015, started just one game in the Red Sox’s most recent series. After not playing on Friday, he went 0-for-3 on Saturday to end his season-best 11-game hitting streak.

BN/RF/LF Alejandro De Aza started one game since the All-Star break because the Angels had only one righty starter during the four-game series. Although De Aza went 0-for-4 with just a walk in the series, he still owns a 29-23 record when starting for the Orioles and Red Sox this season.

For more sports coverage, follow Adam Lowenstein on Twitter at @StatsAdam. Statistics used from Baseball-Reference.com