After a shutout and a sweep in Boston, Angels now focus on the A's

Written By kolimtiga on Jumat, 22 Agustus 2014 | 12.56

The Angels completed their 2-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park at 10:22 p.m. EDT Thursday. They showered, dressed and took the bus to Logan Airport for a six-hour flight to San Francisco.

With any luck, they'll get to their hotel by 4 a.m. PDT in advance of a critical three-game series at Oakland, which begins Friday night.

"I can think of a lot more ideal circumstances to go into a series against the A's," right fielder Kole Calhoun said after the Angels won for the eighth time in nine games and increased their division lead over Oakland to two games. "But we can't do anything about it.

"Everybody's going to have a lot of adrenaline Friday night. But you have to get some sleep on the plane. Get some rest Friday and come to the park ready to go."

Teams often schedule day games or 4 p.m. starts on getaway days for opponents, but the Red Sox didn't do the Angels any favors by starting Thursday's game at 7 p.m. Sunday's game in Oakland was also moved from 1 to 5 p.m. to accommodate ESPN.

"There are some things that go along with being a good team," reliever Joe Smith said. "They want you on TV. They want to draw at the gate, and the best way is by having night games."

The Angels flew Friday starter Hector Santiago to the Bay Area earlier Thursday so he could get a normal night of sleep. For the rest of the Angels, the skies probably seemed more friendly after Matt Shoemaker held the Red Sox to one hit in 72/3 innings and struck out nine Thursday.

Shoemaker hit Brock Holt with a pitch to start the first. The right-hander, using pinpoint control of his split-fingered fastball, retired the next 20 batters before Will Middlebrooks broke up his no-hit bid with a double to left with two outs in the seventh.

"In one word, he was sensational," Manager Mike Scioscia said. "I don't know if Shoe has put pitches together like that. He's having a great year, but he was locked in today. Just a great mixture of changing speeds, working both sides of the plate."

Shoemaker, who threw a career-high 116 pitches, improved to 12-4 with a 3.56 earned run average. He was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2008, and few expected him to play more than a long-relief role. He is now tied with Masahiro Tanaka of the New York Yankees for most wins by a rookie.

He also gave the Angels an emotional lift one night after their best pitcher, Garrett Richards, suffered a season-ending knee injury.

"It's important," Scioscia said. "There's going to be a lot of attention on our rotation with Garrett out. To have Matty step up and pitch that deep on a night our bullpen was really tired … you can't say enough about what he did."

Shoemaker said Richards "was heavy on my mind" up until game time.

"Then I tried to focus on pitching, because that's what G does," Shoemaker said. "It's a detrimental loss, but we're all going to fight hard to pick him up. We're just going to get stronger from it, I really think so."

Follow Mike DiGiovanna on Twitter @MikeDiGiovanna

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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