Text messages from press row...

BOSTON -- You gotta bereave. . . .

If Erick Aybar gets a bunt down, the Angels might still be alive in the playoffs, Angel Stadium might be rocking to the sound of thundersticks Wednesday instead of sitting empty and Vladimir Guerrero and his teammates might not be slinking out the door into another winter of discontent. . . .

Mike Scioscia and the Angels might take issue with T.S. Eliot. . . .

To them, again this year, October is the cruelest month. . . .

Just as Grady Little may have pulled Pedro Martinez too late in 2003, Terry Francona may have pulled Jon Lester too early Monday night. . . .

Jed Lowrie saved Francona. . . .

Nobody saved Little. . . .

Neither Lowrie, who had the game-winning hit, nor Jason Bay, who started the game-winning rally with a ground-rule double and scored the winning run, was part of the Red Sox roster until after the midway point in the season. . . .

Lowrie started the season in the minors and Bay, of course, was acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates in the July trade that sent Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers. . . .

Dustin Pedroia, to the Angels’ chagrin, is 0 for October no more. . . .

Mark Teixeira, brought to Anaheim to take the Angels to the World Series, didn’t supply enough power to get them out of the first round. . . .

Neither did Guerrero, but of course that’s nothing new. . . .

You get the feeling that, because of the all-encompassing intrigue that would fuel interest in a Dodgers-Red Sox matchup and a Ramirez return to Fenway Park, few outside Orange County were pulling for a Freeway World Series. . . .

Much was made of the Red Sox’s ability to score runs with two out against the Angels -- 14 of their 18 runs in the series, including the Game 4 winner, were scored with two out -- but scoring runs in that situation is no guarantee of success. . . .

Josh Hamilton and the Texas Rangers, who scored more two-out runs than any other team in the majors, finished 21 games behind the Angels in the American League West and the Albert Pujols-powered St. Louis Cardinals, who led the National League in two-out runs, also are sitting idle this month. . . .

Before Sunday night’s 12-inning marathon, it had been so long since the Angels defeated the Red Sox in a playoff game, reader Jerry Sondler of Warwick, R.I., notes, “Elena Sharapova was in her first trimester carrying daughter Maria.” . . .

The tennis champion was born April 19, 1987, a little more than six months after Bobby Grich and the Angels scored a 4-3 victory over the Red Sox at Anaheim Stadium to take a 3-1 lead in the American League Championship Series. . . .

The series, of course, then got away from the Angels. . . .

The pavilion perspective at Dodger Stadium pales in comparison to the view from the metal seats atop the Green Monster at Fenway Park, which might offer the coolest vantage point from which to watch a game in all of sports. . . .

Illustrating the reality that fans are literally right on top of the action, a sign warns, “For your safety, please do not reach over the wall.” . . .

A nearly 40-foot drop could ruin a perfectly good evening. . . .

A USA Today chart, based on a formula devised by statistics guru Bill James, listed the Dodgers’ James Loney as the 10th-worst clutch hitter in the playoffs, not in all of baseball, a notion that Loney put to the lie against the Chicago Cubs. . . .

Instead of a World Series share, CC Sabathia will have to settle this winter for a new contract that is expected to pay him in the neighborhood of $25 million a year and probably make the burly left-hander baseball’s highest-paid pitcher. . . .

He must be heartbroken. . . .

Could you imagine the Lakers drenching themselves with champagne for winning a division title or a first-round playoff series the way baseball teams do, an exuberant Kobe Bryant pouring bubbly over the head of Andrew Bynum? . . .

Not even the Clippers would do that. . . .

Never mind Ramirez and Kobe Bryant, reader Richard Sanchez e-mails, “the most popular sports figure in Southern California . . . is Magic Johnson.” . . .

Even in retirement? . . .

Even during the baseball playoffs?

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jerome.crowe@latimes.com