The baseball world was rocked and saddened by the tragic death of 22-year-old Nick Adenhart early Thursday morning, but it was time for the team to begin the healing process by moving on with the distraction of baseball on Friday night against the Red Sox. After a nice amount of tributes and remembrance, the Angels went on to beat the Red Sox by a score of 6-3.
On this night, it's obvious that baseball was the secondary objective. The point of bringing the fans and the teams out to the ballpark was to remember Adenhart, which the Angels organization was able to do nicely.
There was a two-minute tribute to Adenhart that was shown on the ballpark's video board before the game, and players from both teams lined up along the foul lines for a moment of silence. Torii Hunter and John Lackey went to the mound and held up Adenhart's jersey, while the other Angels starters went to their positions. It was an emotional moment, and one that Angels' manager Mike Scioscia saw coming before the game.
"Of course we're going to be overcome with emotion," manager Mike Scioscia said Friday afternoon. "Every player in that room is overcome by emotion. When you get on the field, baseball has a way of focusing you. Guys will get the emotion out. It's not just going to happen and you turn the page. This is not like a tough loss of a game. This is a tough loss of the magnitude we hope we never experience again."
The emotional feelings continued throughout the evening.
Angels' starting pitcher Jered Weaver scratched Adenhart's initials into the mound, and then gave up just four hits and a single unearned run in six and two-thirds innings of work.
Chone Figgins doubled in a run in the bottom of the second, and Howie Kendrick singled in two more to give the Angels an early 3-0 lead. L.A. picked up three more runs in the bottom of the seventh, courtesy of a sacrifice fly from Torii Hunter, and a two-run single from Jeff Mathis.
Boston got two runs right back in the eighth off of Kevin Jespen, but Scot Shields came in to get the last out of the inning and close out the ninth as well.
For the Angels, this game wasn't about winning or losing, or about baseball in general. It was about distracting themselves from the terrible tragedy that the team had experienced less than two days before. And between the tributes, the fans, and the ballgame itself, it appeared that they managed to somehow begin the healing process.
