Angels 8, Red Sox 3: Garrett Richards was lost to injury in the second inning, but visiting Los Angeles rallied to post its third straight win over Boston.

Richards, who leads the team in ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, WAR and batting-average against - and is tied for the club lead with 13 wins, went down with two outs in the second inning due to a left patellar injury. Cory Rasmus (3-1) picked up the win in relief and Josh Hamilton drove in three runs for the Angels, who won for the seventh time in eight contests and moved 1 1/2 games ahead of second-place Oakland in the American League West.

David Ortiz hit his 30th home run among four hits for the Red Sox, who will try to avoid a four-game sweep in the series finale on Thursday. Clay Buchholz (5-8) cruised through the first three innings before running into trouble and was charged with six runs on seven hits and two walks in six frames.

Richards allowed a run in the first on Yoenis Cespedes’ sacrifice fly and another in the second on David Ross’ single that left runners at first and second with one out. Brock Holt followed with a grounder to first and Richards raced to cover on the potential 3-6-1 double play but got caught up as he approached the bag and had his knees buckle under before staying down for nearly 10 minutes and getting carted off the field.

Ortiz’s blast to the back wall of the bullpen in right-center in the third made it 3-0, but the Angels got on the board on Howie Kendrick’s RBI single in the fourth and batted around in the fifth. Kole Calhoun drew a bases-loaded walk to push across the first of five runs and Mike Trout floated a pop-up to shallow right that dropped in for an RBI fielder’s choice before Pujols singled in the go-ahead run. Hamilton hit a sacrifice fly to center and Kendrick capped the rally with an RBI single.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Richards was attended to by trainers as all eight Angels players on the field gathered around in concern. He will undergo further examination to determine the extent of the injury. … Ortiz now has registered eight 30-homer seasons with Boston, tying Ted Williams for the most in team history. … The Red Sox activated Ross (foot) from the 15-day disabled list and recalled OF Alex Hassan while optioning C Dan Butler and RHP Steven Wright to Triple-A Pawtucket.