Walker Buehler looks to stop June swoon as Red Sox visit Angels

Walker Buehler will make his first start in Southern California since helping the Los Angeles Dodgers capture the 2024 World Series title when the Boston Red Sox open a three-game series with the Los Angeles Angels on Monday in Anaheim.

Buehler signed a one-year, $21.05 million contract with the Red Sox after finishing the playoffs with a streak of 13 1/3 scoreless innings. That included picking up the win as a starter in a 4-2 victory over the Yankees in Game 3 of the World Series and a save in a series-clinching 7-6 win in Game 5.

The 30-year-old right-hander is 5-5 with a 5.95 ERA this season with the Red Sox but has struggled badly in June, allowing 16 earned runs in just 12 1/3 innings (11.68 ERA). He allowed a season-high eight earned runs on eight hits and four walks over 3 1/3 innings in an 8-0 loss in his last start on Tuesday at Seattle.

Buehler, the subject of trade rumors, said it’s “kind of back to the drawing board a little bit.

“It (stinks) to fail on that kind of level with kind of where our team is at and how we’ve been feeling about ourselves and starting to play really good baseball. And to be an older guy that was brought in here to kind of try and help lead, and to perform the way I have been, it’s tough and embarrassing.”

Buehler is 1-0 with a 3.92 ERA in four career starts against the Angels.

The Red Sox are 3-3 on their nine-game road trip after dropping two of three games over the weekend to the San Francisco Giants, including a 9-5 setback on Sunday afternoon.

Rob Refsnyder, Romy Gonzalez and Ceddanne Rafaela each homered in the loss for Boston, which committed two errors that resulted in five unearned runs. One came on a soft liner by Mike Yastrzemski that went off the glove of Gonzalez for an error, allowing Casey Schmitt to score what proved to be the winning run in the seventh inning.

“That play has gotta be made, simple as that,” Gonzalez said. “We’re major leaguers. That play has to be made 100 out of 100 times.”

Boston gave up eight unearned runs in the three-game series.

“I don’t know how many (unearned runs) there were but we’ve got to play better defense,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “The whole weekend was kind of sloppy in that department.”

Angels right-hander Jack Kochanowicz (3-8, 5.38) will make his first career against Boston on Monday and will try and snap a six-start winless streak. He is 0-3 in that stretch.

The Angels dropped two of three games to the American League West-leading Houston Astros over the weekend but went down to the wire before losing, 8-7, in Sunday’s rubber match.

Trailing 8-6 entering the bottom of the ninth, Zach Neto led off with his first career pinch-hit home run off Astros closer Josh Hader. Two outs later, Nolan Schanuel, who had homered earlier, doubled off the bottom of the fence in right-center, setting the stage for a showdown between Hader and three-time American League MVP Mike Trout. Trout then lined a 3-1 slider right at center fielder Jake Meyers to end the game.

“Mike hit the ball right on the screws,” Angels bench coach Ray Montgomery said. “That’s all you can do if you’re Mike, just hit the ball right on the screws. Bad aim.”

–Field Level Media