Red Sox Deliver Sobering Message to Angel Bullpen : Baseball: Jefferson’s grand slam propels Boston to 8-3 victory, ending California’s winning streak at seven.

Perhaps they read about them in the newspaper or noticed some highlights on the evening news. Maybe they heard a game on radio or saw one on television.

Whatever the medium, the message was out: The Angels were playing some great baseball and it was time to check them out.

A crowd of 27,816, third largest this season, filed into Anaheim Stadium Friday night to see if the first-place Angels could extend their winning streak to eight against the Boston Red Sox.

But by the ninth inning of the Angels’ 8-3 loss, many fans were heading for the exits quicker than Manager Marcel Lachemann made it to the mound in the sixth inning.

Angel relievers Mitch Williams and Mike Butcher blew a one-run lead, and Reggie Jefferson keyed a six-run sixth with a grand slam as the Red Sox ended the Angels’ winning streak at seven.

The Angels have been one of baseball’s most resilient teams. When opponents have scored this season, the Angels have countered with at least a run 50% of the time (25 times in 50 opportunities entering Friday’s game). Opponents had done the same only 22% of the time (18 of 82).

It was the Red Sox who did the counter-punching Friday night. After the Angels scored three runs in the fifth to take a 3-1 lead, Boston roared back in the sixth to take a 7-3 lead.

Williams, struggling to incorporate several changes in his motion, walked two batters and gave up an infield single. Butcher gave up the grand slam and a one-run homer.

“There’s no way we should have lost this game,” Williams said. “I blew it. All I had to do was get a left-hander out and I didn’t do it. Lach has given me every opportunity to do it [this season], and I haven’t done . . .”

Disadvantage, Williams.

“I hate losing, and I cost us the game tonight,” said Butcher, who has allowed two hits and two runs in each of his last three appearances. “I threw [Jefferson] a low fastball and he hit it out. It wasn’t a strike, but he’s a low-ball hitter, and he hit it. I didn’t think he was that good of a low-ball hitter.”

Disadvantage, Butcher.

Call it a draw.

Troy O’Leary, a former Cypress High standout who spent seven years in Milwaukee’s farm system before being claimed on waivers April 14 by the Red Sox, started the winning rally with a single to center.

John Valentin flied out, after which Lachemann replaced starter Scott Sanderson, who was suffering from a stiff back, with Williams. Bad move. Williams walked Mo Vaughn and Mike Macfarlane to load the bases, and Mike Greenwell followed with a broken-bat chopper to the mound.

Williams made an around-the-back, glove-hand stop of the ball but couldn’t recover in time to make a throw home.

Lachemann brought Butcher in to face Tim Naehring, who flied to center for the second out. But Jefferson, on a 1-2 pitch, hit a towering fly ball to right that barely cleared the wall for a grand slam and a 6-3 lead.

Center fielder Ron Mahay, a strike-replacement player who was sent to double-A Trenton after the game, followed with his first career homer, a liner over the right-center-field fence, to give Boston a 7-3 lead.

Boston starter Erik Hanson (4-0), who allowed three runs on seven hits in six innings and struck out four, was the winner. Rheal Cormier held the Angels scoreless through the seventh and eighth innings, and Stan Belinda retired the side in the ninth.

Williams (1-2) was the loser.

Boston took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on Vaughn’s RBI single, but the Angels came back with three in the fifth, one on Jim Edmonds’ RBI single, one on Chili Davis’ RBI fielder’s choice, and one on J.T. Snow’s RBI single.