Advertisement

Angels’ C.J. Wilson gets first win since June 26

Share via

Break out the champagne — the drought is over. Angels left-hander C.J. Wilson tasted victory for the first time in more than two months Wednesday night, giving up three runs and eight hits in six innings of a 10-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Angel Stadium.

Torii Hunter had three hits, including two doubles, and Kendrys Morales and Chris Iannetta each hit two-run homers to lead a 14-hit attack, as the Angels improved to 5-0 against the Red Sox this season and gained a game in both the American League West and wild-card standings.

“It’s good to give the team what it needed, some solid innings, and to keep the score down,” said Wilson, who gave up six earned runs or more in three of his previous five starts. “It seems like I’ve had a hard time avoiding the Twilight Zone innings, where you’re giving up infield hits, choppers, swinging bunts.

“But with the score the way it was, I told myself, ‘Prevent them from driving the ball, don’t give in to the big inning.’ I just tried to get outs, focus on the hitters, and it worked.”

Wilson, who signed a five-year, $77.5-million deal in December, improved to 9-4 with a 2.36 earned-run average after a 7-3 win over Baltimore on June 26, a first-half performance that earned him an All-Star game berth.

But in his next 11 starts, Wilson was 0-5 with a 6.09 ERA, including a disastrous Aug. 18 game against Tampa Bay in which he was staked to an early 8-0 lead and was torched for seven fifth-inning runs. The Angels lost, 10-8.

This time, his teammates seemed determined to get Wilson a win, pounding right-hander Zach Stewart, who made his Red Sox debut, for nine runs and 10 hits — seven for extra bases — in the first three innings to take a 9-1 lead.

Mike Trout (single), Hunter (RBI double), Albert Pujols (RBI single) and Morales (two-run homer) opened the first with hits, and Hunter followed Erick Aybar’s second-inning double with an RBI single.

The Angels tacked on four more runs in the third, as Morales doubled, Alberto Callaspo and Aybar hit two-out RBI doubles and Iannetta hit a two-run homer to left-center.

Wilson (10-9) survived a shaky 28-pitch, two-walk first and did not walk a batter the rest of the game. He struck out four and gave up one run in the second and two in the fifth.

Short hops

C.J. Cron’s bid for the franchise’s minor league RBI record ended Wednesday when the Class-A Inland Empire first baseman underwent surgery to repair a shoulder tear. Cron, the Angels’ first-round pick in 2011, hit .293 with 27 homers and 123 RBIs, one shy of Todd Greene’s season record of 124 RBIs, set at Class-A Lake Elsinore in 1994.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

twitter.com/MikeDiGiovanna

Advertisement