Willson Contreras and Romy Gonzalez homered to back the superb pitching of Sonny Gray, who gave up one run and four hits in six innings of the Boston Red Sox’s 8-1 win over the Angels on Saturday night at Angel Stadium.
Wilyer Abreu added a two-run double, and relievers Jovani Morán, Greg Weissert and Alec Gamboa combined for three hitless innings for the Red Sox (39-48), who have won seven of nine games. The Angels (36-54) have lost five straight and 11 of 17 since June 17.
Gray (10-1) induced two of Boston’s three double-play grounders, struck out seven and walked one. The 36-year-old right-hander has six straight quality starts since May 30, a stretch in which he’s gone 5-0 with a 1.97 ERA.
Though he leads the American League in wins and ranks second with a 2.61 ERA, Gray was not named to the AL All-Star team Saturday.
Angels starter Sam Aldegheri (3-4) walked two ahead of Contreras’ 19th homer, a 421-foot blast to left-center that gave Boston a 3-0 lead in the first.
Josh Lowe’s one-out homer pulled the Angels to within 3-1 in the second. Jo Adell walked, and Wade Meckler singled, but Gray struck out Donovan Walton and Tyler Heineman to escape the jam.
Aldegheri did not give up a hit in the second, third and fourth, but with his pitch count at 88, he was pulled in favor of left-hander Samy Natera Jr., who gave up one run in his first nine big-league games.
Anthony Seigler led off the fifth with a double, Ceddanne Rafaela walked, and Abreu slammed a two-run double off the right-field wall for a 5-1 lead.
Gonzalez, robbed of a potential first-inning homer when Adell made a leaping catch of his drive above the wall in right, followed with a towering, 368-foot fly that cleared the short left-field wall for his first homer of the season and a 7-1 lead. Rafaela’s RBI single in the eighth made it 8-1.
Up next: Red Sox LHP Ranger Suarez (4-3, 2.94 ERA) will oppose Angels RHP Ryan Johnson (1-3, 7.40) in Sunday night’s series finale.