Friday night was a fun night to be an Angels fan. The Champs from Boston have made a recent habit of beating the Angels in the playoffs on their way to the World Series. The Angels would like to change that this year, and their dominating victory over the Sox 11-3 in the first game of the series last night could be a sign of things to come.

John Lackey, who never has pitched well against the Red Sox in the playoffs, was strong through 7 innings, in which he gave up 3 runs on 5 hits. Lackey also whiffed 6–one of them being his 1,000th career strikeout, in which he recieved a standing ovation for.

“I had no idea,” was what Lackey had to say of the ovation, which caught him off guard.

Lackey was backed by some rare offense. Garret Anderson drove in 5 runs, including his 9th home run, against Clay Buchholtz . The Angels scored 3 early runs in the 1st on RBI hits by Casey Kotchman, Macier Izturis, and Vladimir Guerrero. Although the Red Sox ended up tying the game by the 4th inning, that would be all they would score against Lackey and the Angels’ offense would trample the Red Sox from that point. The team had a couple of big innings, scoring 4 in the 5th and 3 in the 6th.  That would knock Red Sox starter Clay Buchholtz ou of the game, who lost for the 5th time in 7 decisions.

The Angels also showed some flashy defense, with outstanding plays from Casey Kotchman, Macier Izturis, and Howie Kendrick. Izturis had one of the best defensive nights of his career, and also banged out 2 hits.

“Great defense the whole game, great start to the second half,” said Lackey about the team defense and impressive win to start the second half.

John Lackey: 7 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 SO

Garret Anderson: 4-4, HR, 5 RBI

Macier Izturis: 2-3, 2B, 3B, 2 RBI

Clay Buchholtz: 4.2 IP, 8 H, 8 R, (4 ER) 2 BB, 2 SO