Angels Win, Red Sox Streak Snapped

Casey Kotchman's solo home run put Los Angeles ahead in the sixth inning, Gary Matthews Jr. hit two solo homers of his own and the Angels snapped the Boston Red Sox's six-game winning streak with a 6-4 victory Wednesday night.

Kotchman hit his sixth of the season off Craig Hansen, who was recalled before the game. Matthews hit solo shots in the first and fifth off emergency starter Jon Lester, giving him four homers for the season and 100 for his career.

Lester, starting on three days' rest for the first time in his career, pitched in place of Daisuke Matsuzaka, who was scratched with flulike symptoms.

It was the second straight game in which a Boston starter was pulled from his scheduled start. Josh Beckett missed the 7-6 win over the Angels on Tuesday night with a stiff neck and flulike symptoms.

Trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the fifth, the Red Sox tied it on David Ortiz's third homer, a two-run shot after Dustin Pedroia extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single. But Boston's streak of scoring at least five runs in 10 straight games ended.

Torii Hunter added an RBI double in the ninth, and Francisco Rodriguez picked up his eighth save with a perfect inning.

Jon Garland (3-2) allowed four runs in six innings and got out of a jam in the third when he retired the last two batters after Boston scored once and had runners at first and second with one out.

Matthews homered in the first, Maicer Izturis doubled in a run in the second and Erick Aybar hit an RBI single in the third, giving the Angels a 3-1 lead.

For Boston, Julio Lugo singled in a run in the second, his seventh hit in nine at-bats, and Pedroia cut the lead to 3-2 with a sacrifice fly in the third.

Matthews led off the fifth against Lester with his second homer.

Julio Lugo kept Lester from getting into more trouble with good plays at shortstop in each of the first five innings.

He made a diving stop on a grounder to his left and threw out Garret Anderson to end the first, then he took a throw from Manny Ramirez on Izturis' double to left and threw out Kotchman at home in the second.

In the third, Lugo dropped a popup but recovered to throw to second for a forceout. Then he started an inning-ending double play in the fourth and another double play for the first two outs in the fifth.

He also helped Hansen (0-1) with a long throw from the hole to get Aybar leading off the sixth before Kotchman homered for the second straight game in the series.