Tommy Cassell- Boston Red Sox Blog

Sox Lose To Wounded Angels

Nick Adenhart’s Death Overshadows Sox vs Angels

The Los Angeles Angels and all of baseball were reminded on Thursday that there are more important things to life than baseball.

22-year-old Nick Adenhart, a promising young pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, and two of his friends were killed when their car was hit by a suspected drunk driver early on Thursday morning.

The Angels postponed their Thursday night game against the Oakland Athletics but baseball returned to Los Angeles on Friday as the Boston Red Sox came to town.

But the hearts of all the players were still heavy from the loss of Adenhart. Still baseball and life had to go on as the Angels beat the Red Sox 6-3.

In the second, Chone Figgins’ RBI single got the scoring going as Howie Kendrick two-run single gave the Angels an early 3-0 lead. Los Angeles extended its lead to 6-1 in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Torii Hunter and a two-run single from Jeff Mathis. Tim Wakefield gave up three runs and six hits through six innings of work as the knuckleballer also walked five Angels.

David Ortiz had his first RBI of the season with a sacrifice fly in the third. Kevin Youkilis’ infield single in the eighth plated home two runs (one on a throwing error) as the Sox cut the deficit to 6-3.

However, Scot shields shut down the Sox in the ninth to record his first save of the season and preserve a 6-3 victory for the Angels.

Jacoby Ellsbury had his first breakout game of the season as he went 2-for-4 with two stolen bases. The Red Sox have little time to think about the loss as Brad Penny and Joe Saunders square off at 4 p.m. at Angel Stadium.