McAdam: Sweep of the Angels makes it harder to discount Red Sox' fast start

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- When they were beating the stuffing out of the Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays, those two baseball pinatas, in the first two weeks of the season, the Red Sox' won-loss record came with a giant warning: Not all victories have come against actual major league-caliber opponents.

Their early-season success had to be taken in context. Sure, they were piling up the wins, but who wouldn't be beating up on those two have-nots? Just wait until the competition gets better.

Even when the Red Sox took two-of-three from the Yankees at Fenway last week, there remained some skeptics.

But the recently completed series with the Los Angeles Angels has made the Red Sox' success harder to dismiss.

When the Sox arrived in Anaheim earlier this week, the Angels had the second-best record in the American League and the No. 1 star in the game in rookie pitcher/slugger Shohei Ohtani.

As the Red Sox packed for Oakland late Thursday night, however, their case was made stronger. Not only did the Red Sox sweep the Angels, they dominated them. The combined score for their three victories: 27-3. Put another way, the average score in the set was 9-1.

Granted, the Angels can't even lay claim to being the best team in their own division. That distinction goes to the world champion Houston Astros. But the Angels are widely viewed as playoff contenders, having fortified their roster over the winter with the additions of Ian Kinsler and Zack Cozart and, of course, Ohtani.

Or at least they sure had the look of contenders before the Red Sox picked them apart over three successive nights. It's one thing to roll over the Marlins, who appear intent on not winning as a means of following in the footsteps of tankers-turned-champs like the Cubs and the Astros. And the Rays, perennially rebuilders, aren't a threat to anyone but themselves.

But the Yankees and Angels are different. Both spend money, both have stars and both have designs on playing well into October. And the Red Sox are a collective 5-1 against them, having never trailed over 27 innings at Angel Stadium.

Of course, there were no "told-you-so's'' to be heard in the Red Sox clubhouse, no flexing of their muscles. The Red Sox weren't making any statements with their three-game demolition of the Angels; they were merely going about their business.

"We're pretty good right now,'' said Alex Cora, showing a flair for understatement. "We're pitching, we're playing good defense, we're driving the ball, we're aggressive on the bases, we're putting pressure (on opponents) in every aspect. And that's a good team. For them to score, what, three runs was it? That's good pitching.''

Nor were they motivated to prove a point by stepping up their game as they stepped up in class. If all the strength-of-schedule talk reached their ears at all in the first couple of weeks, the Red Sox seemingly paid it no mind.

"One thing about them,''  said Cora of his players, "from Day One, I told them the circumstances around us, the people around us, they're not going to dictate who we are and what we do in the clubhouse. The fans, the media, the other teams...we've just got to set our sights on our goal and what we have to do and go perform. And they're doing a good job of it.

"You see it -- for whatever the record is, and you read about it and you're like, 'Wow, that's impressive.' But they're not getting caught up in it. They show up every day and they play. (Friday) we go to Oakland and it's the same goal: try to win the series.''

That's something the Red Sox have done with regularity. They've played six series so far and won them all, including four which they swept. Good or bad, pretenders or contenders, home or away -- none of it has mattered.

Certainly, the Angels didn't put up much of a fight. Los Angeles may have the league's best defense to go with a formidable middle-of-the-lineup and a quality rotation. It didn't matter. The Red Sox hit more homers in this three-game series than they have in 41 years and held the Angels scoreless in 24 of the 27 innings played.

The weekend series with the A's isn't going to change any hearts and minds. Oakland is no match for the Red Sox on paper and anything less than two wins out of three will be considered a disappointment.

Maybe the Red Sox won't really win any converts until they demonstrate they can beat their most recent post-season tormentors, the Indians and Astros.

And maybe it won't matter by then, by which time the wins may be stacked higher than any remaining doubts.