Angels Find No Relief in 9-4 Defeat : Baseball: Abbott leaves with 4-2 lead, but bullpen falters in opening game of trip at Boston.

Jim Abbott knew he was faltering in the seventh inning when Jack Clark and Luis Rivera sandwiched singles around a ground out. But the Angels’ bullpen had rescued him so many times this season, Abbott was hardly concerned about leaving.

“They pick you up a lot more times than they let you down,” Abbott said of the relievers, who took a collective 2.11 earned-run average into Friday’s game. “This is a team. We go through thick and thin together. That’s how we’ll win it, and that’s how we’ll lose it.”

They lost to the Red Sox, 9-4, Friday because the bullpen blew a save opportunity for only the second time this season. And because they allowed Roger Clemens to rebound from a rocky start to record seven strikeouts and his third complete game of the season.

The Angels, who lost for the third time in four games and fifth in seven, jumped on Clemens (9-3) for two runs in the first inning and two more in the sixth but were unable to knock him out.

“We’re down, 4-2--if you’re going to bury me, bury me there,” said Clemens, who has won his last five decisions against the Angels.

“I was struggling early, and I left a lot of balls over the middle of the plate and they hit them. I needed maybe to take it up a couple of levels. I think I spoiled myself early this season (by pitching 30 consecutive scoreless innings), so every time I give up a couple of runs, it’s magnified.”

Luis Polonia’s single, Dave Winfield’s triple and shortstop Rivera’s throwing error on the relay to third base gave the Angels a 2-0 lead. Boston matched that in the second inning, when Abbott walked Mike Greenwell and gave up a two-out home run off the left-field screen to Clark, his third homer in four games.

“Clark’s ball is a home run only here,” Angel third baseman Gary Gaetti said. “In Anaheim, it’s not. But this is Fenway. That’s why it’s a great old ballpark.”

The Angels silenced many of the 34,299 fans by scoring twice in the sixth inning to go ahead, 4-2. Wally Joyner singled to right field and made it to third base on Winfield’s single to center. Joyner scored on Dave Parker’s sacrifice fly to center, and Winfield scored from second on Gaetti’s fly to deepest center field, near the corner formed where the right-field stands abut the center-field stands.

Gaetti, not believing center fielder Ellis Burks had caught the ball, circled the bases. “You don’t hit a ball 420 feet for an out,” he said.

Abbott left with runners on first and second in the seventh inning. Jeff Robinson (0-1), who had inherited 23 runners in 22 appearances and had permitted only two to score, appeared about to escape another precarious situation when he got pinch-hitter Phil Plantier to ground into a force play.

But Carlos Quintana hammered a pitch under Gaetti’s glove for a double, scoring Tony Pena. The Angels walked Wade Boggs intentionally, loading the bases for Tom Brunansky, but Robinson’s 3-and-2 pitch to Brunansky unintentionally missed outside, forcing in the tying run.

“I was one out away from ending the inning,” Robinson said. “I get the first out on a grounder and then if Quintana’s ball is another foot over, we’re out of it. It was hit hard.

“It was just brutal. I can’t even really put into words how bad it was. The game was going along so well, Jim was pitching great. . . . It’s really disappointing for the team. Ultimately, we feel like we let ourselves down.”

Left-hander Bob McClure gave up a single to Greenwell and a three-run home run to Ellis Burks into the left-field screen. Clark stroked his second single of the inning before McClure was mercifully relieved by Mark Eichhorn.

“It’s unfortunate, because Jimmy pitched great and we weren’t able to hold onto it,” Manager Doug Rader said. “Burks has never gotten a hit off (McClure) that I recall, and Greenwell hadn’t done much off him. If he’d done any damage, I’d remember. The two guys we expect Mac to get out, he doesn’t. . . .

“(The relievers) have done a great job for us throughout the year. They’re human. Something like this is going to happen.”

But it rankled the Angels that on a night Clemens showed more human frailty than usual and was hittable, they couldn’t capitalize.

“He got off the hook tonight,” Gaetti said, “and he knows it.”