Kikuchi sets season high with 12 strikeouts en route to sweep of Red Sox

ANAHEIM -- It was lefty Yusei Kikuchi at his best against the Red Sox on Wednesday afternoon.

Kikuchi struck out a season-high 12 batters over seven strong innings and was backed offensively by Jo Adell and Travis d’Arnaud in a 5-2 win to secure a three-game series sweep at Angel Stadium.

It moved the Angels to 40-40 on the year, marking their first time at .500 since they were 25-25 on May 23. If they win on Friday in the series opener against the Nationals, they’ll be above .500 for the first time since they were 11-10 on April 20.

“Obviously, it’s been up and down to this point, but here we are at .500,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “Hopefully, we can keep it going. We’re halfway through and hopefully we can take that next step.”

Kikuchi shook off a shaky first inning marred by an error from shortstop Scott Kingery to allow two unearned runs on just three hits and a walk to pick up his third win and lower his ERA to 2.79 in 17 starts this season. His ERA ranks as the 14th-best mark in the Majors this season among starting pitchers and the eighth-best in the American League, making him a candidate to be named an All-Star for the second time in his career. He also has a 1.12 ERA in eight home starts, which is the best mark in the Majors.

The 12 strikeouts were tied for the second-most in his career and just shy of his career high of 13, set last year against the Giants on July 9. He’s also cut down on his walks in recent starts, issuing a combined four free passes over his last four outings.

“I think before, he only had one pitch where he felt super confident in, and that was the slider,” d’Arnaud said. “And now he's got four pitches he's confident in, which makes it a lot easier to call whatever and keep guys off balance.”

Kikuchi was a swing and miss machine against the Red Sox, garnering a season-high 20 whiffs. He went heavy on breaking balls, as of his 105 pitches, 31 were curveballs and 34 were sliders compared to 26 fastballs. He registered eight swings and misses with the slider, five with the curve, four with his four-seamer and three with his changeup. Of his 12 strikeouts, six came with the slider, three with the curve, two with the changeup and one with his fastball.

“I’ve been able to throw both my slider and curveball for strikes to get ahead and put away guys as well,” Kikuchi said. “Right now, it's probably like 50/50 usage between those two pitches. And I think, as a hitter, I have them guessing over there.”

Kikuchi was aided by a six-pitch sixth inning that allowed him to go back out for the seventh and help save the bullpen. He was visited at the mound by acting manager Ray Montgomery with two outs but remained in the game and got Marcelo Mayer to fly out to right field to end the inning.

Kikuchi settled in after the shaky opening frame that also saw home-plate umpire Alan Porter miss a called third strike to Wilyer Abreu before he walked him two pitches later to load the bases. Trevor Story brought home the two runs with a single to left.

“To go through the first inning like that, we didn’t catch the ball and that happens, but he came back with seven innings and punched out 12,” Montgomery said. “I think he threw 65-70 pitches over the last six innings, which was great.”

But the Angels came back with consecutive homers from Adell and d’Arnaud in the fourth inning off right-hander Richard Fitts. It was the 10th homer this month for Adell, who became just the sixth Angels player to hit 10 homers in June, joining Tim Salmon (1996), Garret Anderson (2003), Albert Pujols (2015), Shohei Ohtani (2021 and ‘23) and Mike Trout (2022).

Adell and d’Arnaud helped spark another rally in the fifth, as they connected on back-to-back RBI singles with two outs. Trout added an insurance run in the sixth on a two-out RBI single to right.

“It was huge,” Adell said of the win. “The pitching was fantastic. We did a nice job passing the baton, having great at-bats, putting pressure on them to make pitches, and putting up good swings. To be back at [.500] is big for us.”