Another strong start from Jake Bennett helps Red Sox beat Angels to open road trip

ANAHEIM, Calif. — After Jake Bennett’s first taste of the majors, a two-game May cameo at a time of great rotation need for the Red Sox, Garrett Whitlock offered unsolicited encouragement as a parting gift, an effort to counter the natural disappointment.

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“Listen, man, you’re a really good major league pitcher,” Whitlock told him in a quiet clubhouse after he was demoted back to Triple-A Worcester. “Keep doing your thing.”

And so Bennett has, making the most of this next major league chance, authoring another standout start Friday night in a 5-2 win over the Angels: 7⅔ innings, two runs.

Bennett didn’t allow a base runner until the fifth, when Vaughn Grissom, formerly of the Red Sox, lined a clean single to right field.

Bennett didn’t allow a run until the eighth, when Jose Siri popped a solo home run to right field.

An infield single, a wild pitch, and another single, from shortstop Zach Neto, created another run and took some of the shine off Bennett’s previously sparkling line in the box score. But it did little to diminish the overall takeaway: Bennett keeps looking awfully good in a Red Sox rotation that ranks among baseball’s best.

For Bennett, a 25-year-old lefthanded rookie, this was the longest start of his pro career, surpassing the 6⅓ frames he threw in his previous outing, June 27 against the Yankees, which itself edged his six innings in the game before that, June 22 at the Rockies.

He also set personal-highs in pitches (92) and batters faced (28).

Overall, Bennett owns a 3.10 ERA and 0.98 WHIP in seven starts.

The Red Sox (38-48) won for a sixth time in eight games.

In the ninth, Aroldis Chapman recorded the first out via the 1,364th strikeout of his career, breaking the all-time reliever record. Denzer Guzman went down swinging at a 99-miles-per-hour sinker. Chapman passed Hoyt Wilhelm, who had 1,363 strikeouts out of the bullpen.

Chapman allowed a pair of singles but induced a game-ending, double-play grounder from Jo Adell, who represented the potential tying run.

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Angels lefthander Reid Detmers was highly ineffective, slogging through five innings and giving up five runs, seven hits, and three walks. He struck out five.

Detmers allowed at least one base runner in each of his innings, and he yielded at least one run in most of them. By the time he was done, only Nate Eaton (three strikeouts) and Andruw Monasterio (also 0 for 3) had not reached base.

Even Jarren Duran, dropped to seventh in the batting order for the first time since April 14, got in on the fun, contributing a sacrifice fly in the second inning and a run-scoring sacrifice bunt in the third.

Kickstarting the first rally was Romy Gonzalez, who shot a line drive to center field to lead off the second inning. Jose Siri reached down on an awkward diving catch attempt, but it skipped by him and rolled to the wall, allowing Gonzalez to scoot around the bases. He probably could have made it an inside-the-park home run, but interim third base coach Chad Epperson held him at third. Duran drove him in a moment later.

In the third, Abreu doubled, Willson Contreras singled, and Caleb Durbin walked to load the bases with one out. Gonzalez chopped a two-run single through the right side of the infield, and Duran’s bunt brought in another.

Detmers’s hesitation upon fielding it — as he decided against throwing home to try to get the lead runner and instead threw to first — yielded a missed catch error by first baseman Nolan Schanuel and afforded the Sox an opportunity to tack on more, but they did not.

Durbin added a solo homer in the fifth, a line drive hooked down the left-field line. It was his eighth long ball of the year and seventh in the past month.

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