White Sox lose to Angels, fail to close gap on Tigers

If the White Sox were a little distracted by watching the scoreboard Friday night as the Detroit Tigers continued their losing ways, the Los Angeles Angels quickly got their attention at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.

The division leading Angels jumped off to a 2-0 start in the first inning and never looked back, cruising to a 7-1 victory in the first game of this three-game series.

With Detroit losing 6-4 to Toronto earlier Friday, the Sox began the game with a chance to close the Central Division gap to 5 games. The loss drops the Sox to 70-72, keeping them 6 behind Detroit with 20 games to play.

Angels starter Joe Saunders squelched any thoughts of a hot start by handcuffing the Sox with an overpowering fastball to complement his nasty slider and occasional changeup.

Only Jayson Nix was able to solve Saunders with a solo home run to left field in the third inning. After that, Saunders (13-7) mowed down 15 straight hitters before leaving after 7 innings and 101 pitches. Saunders surrendered 3 hits to go with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts for the Angeles, who moved to 30 games above .500 (85-55).

Sox starter Gavin Floyd came into the contest with a nice streak (9-5 in his last 20 starts) after dominating Boston in a 5-1 win last Saturday. But much of that success has come at home and Floyd now has a 3-7 mark in his last 13 road games.

The Angels broke the game open in the fifth inning as Macier Izturis hit a 2-run double after Floyd gave up a single and walk to Erick Aybar and Chone Figgins. A sacrifice fly by Bobby Abreu gave Los Angeles a 5-1 lead.

A pair of doubles by Abreu and Juan Rivera were sandwiched around a single by Vladimir Guerrero to pad 2 more runs on the scoredboard.

For the Sox, the only good news of the day were comments from Jake Peavy that he was ready to do whatever the White Sox needed from here on out. It's possible the Sox could make an announcement on Saturday whether to give Peavy a start on the West Coast swing.