Angel Bullpen Problems Look All Too Familiar : Pitching: Lead evaporates when Williams and Butcher can’t keep the Red Sox in check.

If the Angels thought they had cured their bullpen woes this season, Friday’s sixth-inning meltdown against the Boston Red Sox provided a grim reminder of past failures.

The Angels got a pretty fair start out of right-hander Scott Sanderson, but needed to bridge the gap between the sixth and the ninth.

Mitch Williams couldn’t do it.

Neither could Mike Butcher.

A 3-1 Angel lead entering the sixth turned into a 7-3 deficit. The 27,816 at Anaheim Stadium never got a chance to see closer Lee Smith and the Angels’ seven-game winning streak was history.

That the Angels lost wasn’t such a big deal. After all, they weren’t going to go unbeaten the rest of the way. It was how they lost that should have been disturbing.

The bullpen’s performance seemed like a flashback to last season, when little if anything good came trotting out to the mound in the late innings.

The Angels had 21 saves, tied for the second-fewest in the American League last year, and that was a huge reason why they had the league’s worst record when the strike hit last August.

Because of that, the Angels acquired Smith and Williams to form a tag-team as closer and set-up man.

Smith certainly has held up his end, recording 11 saves in 12 games. Troy Percival, a rookie, has been another bright spot.

But Williams hasn’t been sharp and was recently moved to middle relief. And Butcher gave up two runs for the third consecutive appearance.

Is Manager Marcel Lachemann worried? Apparently not with the bullpen as a whole, but he did express concern with Williams’ inability to maintain control.

“I’m not going to lump four or five guys together,” Lachemann said. “This was one out of, what, 28 games? You’ve got to be realistic.”

The reality Friday was that neither Williams nor Butcher came through. Both acknowledged as much after the Angels’ 8-3 loss.

“I stunk, there’s no two ways about it,” Williams said.

Williams relieved Sanderson with one out and a runner on first. Two walks and an infield single later, Williams was gone and the Red Sox had a run.

“With Mitch it’s not so much base hits, but the bases on balls,” Lachemann said. “There’s a line between effective wildness and wildness. Effective wildness means you get them out. Wildness means you don’t.”

Enter Butcher, who gave up a grand slam to Reggie Jefferson and a solo homer to Ron Mahay, his first in the major leagues, before getting out of the inning.

Butcher pitched a scoreless seventh, but by game’s end his earned-run average had soared to 5.84.

After his first seven appearances, Butcher was 4-0 with a 0.00 ERA. In his past five games, he is 0-0 with eight earned runs in 5 1/3 innings of work.

“Sanderson did his job,” Lachemann said. “We just didn’t finish it off.”