Angels Dust Off Past in Rare Fenway Sweep

They were the Angels of Nolan Ryan and Frank Tanana, of Dave Chalk, Bobby Valentine and a guy named Joe Lahoud, and of a sore-armed pitcher by the name of Bill Stoneman.

They were a ragged group that went 68-94 in 1974 but had the distinction of accomplishing what no Angel team since has been able to achieve . . . until Thursday night.

The Angels’ 13-4 thrashing of the Boston Red Sox before 33,611 at Fenway Park was much more than a rout. It was a piece of history. Not since April 29-May 1 of 1974 had the Angels swept a three-game series from Boston at Fenway.

But their 17-hit assault, which included two home runs and an RBI double by Garret Anderson, four hits and two runs by Scott Spiezio and three hits and three RBIs by Benji Gil, gave the Angels their first series sweep in Boston in 27 years and the third in franchise history.

This came as a shock to Stoneman, who was the winning pitcher in Game 3 of that 1974 series--it turned out to be his only win as an Angel--and is now the team’s general manager.

“No way,” said Stoneman, who retired after the 1974 season because of an arm injury. “I was done [that season]. That was my only win in the American League. Ryan pitched a night game, and I had the day game the next day.”

The key to that series, Stoneman recalls, may have been the flame-throwing Ryan’s beanball early in Game 2.

“He hit someone in the head--I can’t remember who--and Boston wanted no part of him after that,” Stoneman said. “We won that game handily, and I think they still had a fear of Noly the next day. That was my only game in the American League when I felt I had good stuff. I made it to the ninth inning, and Rudy May finished the game.”

Angel Manager Mike Scioscia was a junior in high school at the time. Right fielder Tim Salmon was in the first grade. Anderson, the Angel left fielder, was coming up on his second birthday. Center fielder Darin Erstad was born a month after the sweep.

“A three-game sweep in Boston. Wow, that’s awesome,” said Salmon, who celebrated with--what else?--a slice of Boston Cream Pie. “It seems like I’ve been here so many times when we’ve played well and they played just better than us, so this is nice.”

The Angels had a 102-153 record at Fenway before this week. They went 0-6 here in 1999 and ’93. But with a 4-3 victory Tuesday, a 4-2 win Wednesday and the romp Thursday, the Angels will finish 3-0 at Fenway this season.

The victory also knocked Boston out of the wild-card lead and moved the Angels to within five games of Minnesota in that race. The Angels have won 13 of their last 17 games and 12 of their last 13 games on the road. They will begin a four-game series in Yankee Stadium tonight.

“I’ve only been playing for seven years, but to come here and sweep these guys in this park is tough to do,” Anderson said. “To do it with a lot of runs on the board is nice. That’s better than having to sweat it out.”

Anderson provided much of the cushion. After being fooled badly and striking out on a changeup in the dirt in the first inning, Anderson pounded a first-pitch fastball from Bret Saberhagen over the wall in right for a two-run homer and a 4-1 lead in the third.

The Red Sox scored three in the bottom of the fifth off Angel starter Pat Rapp to tie the score, 4-4, but Anderson sparked a six-run rally in the sixth by smashing another first-pitch fastball into the right-field seats, an estimated 434 feet away, for a leadoff homer.

The Angels didn’t stop there. Spiezio doubled, Salmon singled, and Adam Kennedy greeted reliever Hipolito Pichardo with an RBI double off the center- field wall for a 6-4 lead.

Bengie Molina was intentionally walked to load the bases, and Gil ripped a two-run double off the Green Monster in left for an 8-4 lead. Another run scored on second baseman Jose Offerman’s error, and Erstad capped the rally with an RBI fielder’s choice.

Rapp, a victim of bad support for most of the season, had nothing to complain about Thursday night. He gave up four runs on five hits in six innings to improve to 4-9.

“You wait long enough, and sooner or later it’s going to happen,” Rapp said of the offensive outburst.

The same could be said about an Angel sweep at Fenway.