Red Sox rip 10-game loser Joe Blanton in 10-5 win over Angels

BOSTON — Joe Blanton is halfway to history, but not the kind the Angels hoped he would make.

The right-hander was rocked for seven runs — six earned — and eight hits, including prodigious home runs by David Ortiz, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Mike Carp, in five innings of a 10-5 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sunday.

Just 13 starts into his first season with the Angels, Blanton, who signed a two-year, $15-million deal in December, is 1-10 with an American League-worst 5.87 earned-run average and a major league-high 111 hits surrendered.

Only one pitcher since 1980 has lost 20 games in a season, Detroit left-hander Mike Maroth, who went 9-21 with a 5.73 ERA for a Tigers team that lost 119 games in 2003. If Blanton remains in the rotation and makes 33 to 35 starts, he will have plenty of time to lose 20 games.

Blanton was actually coming off a string of three straight quality starts when he took the mound Sunday, and Albert Pujols’ solo homer in the first — the eighth of his career off Ryan Dempster, more than he’s hit off any pitcher — gave Blanton an early one-run lead.

But in the third inning, Blanton gave up three singles for a run and a three-run homer to right-center field by Ortiz, which gave Boston a 4-1 lead.

Alberto Callaspo’s solo homer in the fourth inning made it 4-2. Callaspo’s error — his sixth in seven games — and Jacoby Ellsbury’s run-scoring triple pushed the Red Sox’s lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the fourth, and the Angels countered in the fifth on Mike Trout’s double and Mark Trumbo’s two-out, run-scoring single, which made it 5-3.

But Saltalammacchia opened the sixth inning with a home run onto the black tarp above the center-field wall, and Carp slammed Blanton’s next pitch into the center-field bleachers for a 7-3 lead, knocking Blanton out of the game.

The Red Sox then blew the game open in the seventh inning when Saltalamacchia followed walks to Ortiz and Mike Napoli with a three-run homer to center off reliever Robert Coello that made it 10-3.

The Angels scored twice in the eighth inning on J.B. Shuck’s two-out, bases-loaded single, which cut the lead to 10-5, and they had runners on first and second when Trout flared a single to right.

It appeared Chris Iannetta had a good chance of scoring from second, but the Angels catcher was held by normally aggressive third-base coach Dino Ebel.

Shuck, who was on first, thought there was no doubt Iannetta would score, because he rounded second aggressively and appeared headed to third.

Boston shortstop Stephen Drew cut off right fielder Daniel Nava’s throw, chased Shuck back toward the bag and applied the tag to end an inning that could have continued with the bases loaded and Josh Hamilton coming up.

It marked the sixth time this season that the Angels, who have lost seven of nine games, have given up at least 10 runs in a game.

ALSO:

Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton welcomes move to batting second

Dodgers rookie outfielder Yasiel Puig could make Andre Ethier obsolete

Paralyzed Cory Hahn is ‘honored’ to be drafted by Arizona Diamondbacks