Lackey dominant

Angels’ righthander nearly no-hits Red Sox

 Many around baseball are confidently proclaiming the Angels as the class of the American League this season.

The hot Halos are going out and proving there’s some truth to the hardball hullabaloo. They certainly looked pretty formidable last night in an all-around dispatching of the Sox by a 6-2 score at Fenway Park.

Prior to the game, the Angels gained in baseball stature when they announced a finalized trade for power-hitting first baseman Mark Teixeira — a deal that fortifies the middle of LA’s lineup while removing Big Tex as an option for Sox trade talks. Following the big deal, the Angels went out and totally outclassed the Sox in their own backyard.

The offense used both opportunity and power to tally six runs against righty Clay Buchholz, and Angels righty John Lackey nearly became the first visiting hurler to throw a no-hitter at Fenway in fifty years.

The Sox were last no-hit 15 years ago when right-hander Chris Bosio threw a no-no against the Olde Towne Team in Seattle, but you have to go all the way back to 1958 to find a visiting pitcher who tossed a no-hitter at Fenway: a 12-strikeout gem by then-Detroit hurler Jim Bunning.

Ultimately it didn’t matter, as scrappy second baseman Dustin Pedroia ripped a single with one out in the bottom of the ninth to break up the no-no. Kevin Youkilis followed with a two-run blast to left field that shattered the shutout.

The aggressive Angels took advantage of some shoddy infield play by the Sox in the third inning to jump out to a 2-0 advantage. A Mike Lowell muffed grounder with one out in the inning cracked open the door for the Angels, and a Chone Figgins RBI single that just eluded shortstop Alex Cora’s glove opened the scoring.

A Howie Kendrick single loaded the bases for the Halos, and Buchholz walked Maicer Izturis to force in the Angels’ second run of the ballgame.

The class of the A.L. West left the small ball tactics behind in the fourth frame, however, when Garrett Anderson pounded a 91-mph Buchholz fastball over the right field fence to make it a 4-0 ballgame.