BOSTON -- Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell said before Friday night's game that he hoped the addition of outfielder Rusney Castillo would provide a spark to his struggling team.
The Sox lit the place on fire all right, but not in the manner Farrell had envisioned. A combustible combination of bad pitching and embarrassing fielding made it immaterial how much Castillo added to the offense, with the Sox falling 11-5 to the Los Angeles Angels before a disgusted crowd of 36,150 in Fenway Park.
Pounded Porcello: Red Sox starter Rick Porcello had allowed a total of seven runs over his previous five starts, no more than two in any of the five.
Friday night, it took the Angels all of 4 1/3 innings to pin seven more runs on Porcello, who with the Tigers last season had faced the Angels twice last season and allowed just one unearned run. He gave up seven hits, including Albert Pujols's eighth home run, and walked three.
Nine to five: The Angels scored nine runs in the fifth inning, sending a dozen players to the plate against Porcello and reliever Matt Barnes. Porcello got himself into this mess by issuing walks to Johnny Gavotella and Erick Aybar to start the inning, and Barnes allowed things to get out of hand by giving up a three-run home run to Chris Iannetta and a two-run home run to Aybar.
That was the biggest inning by a Sox opponent this season, trumping the seven-run first inning the New York Yankees pinned on Clay Buchholz on April 12.
Cover your eyes: Castillo had a single in four trips, but his return was marred by the embarrassment of dropping a routine fly ball in right, the ball landing in the pocket of his glove and exiting just as fast. It was one of three errors committed by the Sox, the other two committed on throws by shortstop Xander Bogaerts.
Left stranded: The Sox, who have not overcome a deficit of more than three runs all season, stirred in the seventh, when they scored twice and had the bases loaded with no outs and David Ortiz coming to the plate. Angels manager Mike Scioscia brought in lefty Jose Alvarez from the pen; Alvarez made Ortiz look bad on a third-strike curveball, then induced Daniel Nava to hit into an inning-ending double play.
Ortiz is now 6 for 48 (.125) against lefties. Nava hasn't hit all season.
Hand of Hanley: Nava was hitting behind Ortiz because left-fielder Hanley Ramirez, hit by a pitch in the fourth inning by Angels starter Garrett Richards, left the game in the sixth with what was called a sore left hand.
