This season hasn’t turned out the way the Boston Red Sox expected, but the pitching?
Excellent.
Friday night was yet another display of elite pitching. An historic display, as closer Aroldis Chapman passed Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm for the most relief strikeouts in Major League Baseball History.
The final strikeout of Wilhelm’s Hall of Fame career came on June 26, 1972. Fifty-three years later, 19,722 days, to be specific, Chapman was ready to meet the moment. The veteran flamethrower punched out Denzer Guzman on three pitches for his 1,364th career K and the first out of the bottom of the ninth. The history-making pitch was a 98.6 mph sinker, and the Angels third baseman went down swinging.
Initially nonchalant, Chapman smiled as he saw his teammates applauding from the visitors’ dugout. He touched his cap and saluted them before finishing the inning.
“I was just focused on doing the job day-in and day-out over the course of the last few weeks, getting to this point where I had the opportunity to break the record,” Chapman told reporters via translator. “I had some highs and some lows, but just try to stay positive throughout, keep the positive mindset, and know that that when God wants it to happen, it’s going to happen, and God wanted it to happen today, and it did.”
After back-to-back singles by Jorge Soler and Vaughn Grissom, which brought Jo Adell to the plate as the tying run, Chapman had seen enough. Adell grounded into an inning-ending double play, Chapman had save No. 17 as well as his MLB record, and the Red Sox opened their three-city trip with a 5-2 win.
“It’s incredible,” rookie starter Jake Bennett, who had a spectacular night of his own, said of watching Chapman make history.
Fresh off a deep no-hit bid against the New York Yankees last weekend, Bennett set new career-highs in innings and pitches thrown. The rookie left-hander’s 7 2/3 frames were far more meticulous than the two earned runs and five hits would suggest; he took a perfect game into the bottom of the fifth, and a shutout bid into the eighth.
“He was awesome,” interim manager Chad Tracy said of Bennett. “Couldn’t have asked for more. It was a really, really great performance.”
Bennett’s attempt at perfection was broken up by none other than Grissom. The former Chris Sale trade chip singled with one-out to become the first Angels baserunner of the weekend, but Bennett worked around him with ease.
“It was real fun to watch, and his tempo was amazing, making pitches, getting weak contact, strikeouts,” super-utilityman Romy Gonzalez, who started at second base and led the lineup with three hits, told NESN’s Jahmai Webster of Bennett. “Kid’s got a real bright future.”
Siri’s 408-foot blast to right-center was just the third hit Bennett allowed, and it cut Boston’s lead to four. The rookie southpaw was officially out of gas by the eighth; when Jose Lowe followed Siri with a first-pitch single advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored Zach Neto’s two-out RBI single,Tracy called for righty reliever Garrett Whitlock.
Boston Red Sox pitcher Jake Bennett throws to first base for an out during the first inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Friday, July 3, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/William Liang)
Angels starter Reid Detmers managed to complete five innings, but they were far from clean. He allowed five earned runs on seven hits, walked three and struck out five, on 104 pitches (66 for strikes).
The Red Sox immediately pounced on Detmers, though Ceddanne Rafaela’s one-out single and stolen base, plus Willson Contreras’ two-out walk, were for naught in the first inning. They took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Gonzalez led off with his first triple of the season (and first on the road since May 27, 2024) and quickly touched home on Jarren Duran’s sacrifice fly.
“We were kind of shrinking the zone and making him come to us,” Gonzalez said. “He’s a really good pitcher, but we had a great game plan today.”
Wilyer Abreu’s 17th double of the year, a Contreras single and Caleb Durbin walk loaded the bases with one-out in the third. Gonzalez singled to right to score two, and a sacrifice bunt by Duran, coupled with a fielding error by Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel, both plated a run and allowed Duran to reach second base.
Durbin led off the top of the fifth with his eighth home run of the season, a 358-footer, 107.4 mph to left. He hit seven of his eight home runs since May 28, including three in his last eight games.
The Red Sox never scored again. But with pitching like this, they had everything they needed.
Tribute time
The Red Sox postgame filed into the Angels Stadium visitors’ clubhouse to fete Chapman with a video full of highlights from his 17 big-league seasons.
“What a career he’s had,” Tracy said.
“It doesn’t surprise me, man,” Gonzalez said. “I think everybody in baseball in baseball knows how hard of a worker he is, and he’s relentless, man. He’s one of the GOATs (Greatest Of All Time) and I’m just super happy I’m able to share a field with him.”
Chapman, 38, owns a 2.51 ERA and 1.08 WHIP over 890 career regular-season games, and now the game’s all-time strikeout record for a reliever. In 27 appearances this season he has 2.10 ERA with 33 strikeouts in 25 2/3 innings.
“I feel very happy,” Chapman said, “very proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish, and just feel very satisfied right now.”