Erick Aybar of the Angels shares Player of the Week award

Erick Aybar's record-setting Sunday, in which he went 4 for 4 with two homers, two doubles and a franchise-record five runs scored, helped earned the Angels shortstop a share of the American League's Player of the Week honors.

Aybar shared the award  with Detroit pitcher Justin Verlander, who didn't allow a run in two starts, striking out 12 in 15 innings to raise his record to 24-5.

Aybar also drove in four runs in Sunday's 11-2 win in Baltimore, making him the first big-leaguer since Josh Willingham in 2009 to score at least five runs while driving in at least four in the same game. But Aybar's week lasted more than nine innings. In six games Aybar batted .455, raising his September average to .434.

The honor was the first of Aybar's career. Verlander has won the award twice previously this season and five times in his career.

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-- Kevin Baxter, reporting from Toronto

Photo: Erick Aybar slaps hands with teammates after he hit a solo home run against the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday. Credit: Steve Ruark / Getty Images

Aybar looks to continue hot hitting against White Sox; Kendrick not in lineup

Erick Aybar never quite took to the leadoff spot last season. After his break-out 2009, when he hit .312 with a .353 on-base percentage, 70 runs and 58 runs batted in, the Angels shortstop slumped to a .253 average, .306 on-base percentage, 69 runs and 29 RBIs in 2010.

Aybar is a naturally aggressive hitter who was extremely productive in the bottom third of the order in 2009. But when he was moved to the top to replace Chone Figgins last season, Aybar, in an effort to take more pitches and work more counts, became too tentative, letting too many good-hitting pitches go by and swinging at too many tough pitcher's pitches.

This season, Aybar has gone back to his more comfortable, attacking style -- he has walked only three times in 21 games entering Monday night's game against the Chicago White Sox -- and it has worked regardless of where he has hit in the lineup.

Aybar entered Monday with a .356 average, which would lead the American League if he had enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title. The switch-hitter missed 14 games in April because of a strained left rib-cage muscle.

Since April 21, Aybar is 26 for 71 (.366) with four doubles, one triple and eight runs in 17 games. In nine of those games, Aybar hit leadoff, including Sunday, when his two-run double snapped a 4-4 tie and propelled the Angels to a 6-5 win over Cleveland.

Angels make quick work of Red Sox, 11-0

The Angels made sure there would be no need for extra innings Thursday, jumping on the Red Sox and former teammate John Lackey early and often in an 11-0 win over Boston, the most one-sided shutout win at Fenway Park in franchise history.

The Angels scored three times in the second, third and fourth innings to drive Lackey from the mound, then added two more runs in the seventh on a Bobby Abreu double.

Abreu finished with three runs batted in and Howie Kendrick, Alberto Callaspo and Mark Trumbo had two RBIs each with Trumbo's coming on a line-drive home run into the seats above the left-field wall, his second homer of the four-game series and his sixth of the year. That leaves him on pace to join Tim Salmon as the only Angels to hit 30 homers in his rookie season.

The Angels' 18 hits -- including a season-high four from Erick Aybar and three from Peter Bourjos, who was also hit by a pitch and scored a career-high four runs -- marked the sixth time in 32 games the Angels had collected at least 15 hits in a game. They did that just 10 times all of last season.

Every Angel starter had at least one hit, with Kendrick joining Bourjos with three hits and Abreu and Callaspo finishing with two apiece.

Right-hander Joel Pineiro, making just his second start of the season, pitching 5 2/3 shutout innings, allowing three hits, to get the win, his first of the season. Relievers Rich Thompson and Francisco Rodriguez finished up the shutout.

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-- Kevin Baxter in Boston

Photo: Boston third baseman Kevin Youkilis grimaces and loses grip on the ball while covering second base as Los Angeles Angels' Peter Bourjos goes hard into the bag. Credit: Elise Amendola / Associated Press

Angels' Erick Aybar undergoes MRI; Rays bench Manny Ramirez

Brandon Wood is in the lineup for the first time Wednesday as the Angels close out their season-opening six-game road trip with an afternoon game with the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. But that wasn't entirely by design.

Wood is starting at shortstop because regular starter Erick Aybar spent much of Wednesday morning having an MRI taken of his strained left side. Aybar has felt stiffness in his side since bellyflopping into third base in the eighth inning of Saturday's loss in Kansas City. Results of the test were not available Wednesday morning and Aybar's availability for Friday's home opener is uncertain.

Maicer Izturis, who started in Aybar's place the last two games, remained in the leadoff spot as the team's designated hitter. Also, the slumping Vernon Wells (.136) is making his first start in center in place of Peter Bourjos.

On the Tampa side, Manny Ramirez is out of the lineup after striking out three times in four at-bats Tuesday. Ramirez, 1 for 16 (.063) on the season, will  also miss Tampa's first road game Thursday in Chicago to attend to an undisclosed personal matter.