Williams Gives Red Sox Plenty of Cushion, 12-1

The boos started first, long and thunderous. Next came the promotional seat cushions, hundreds of them tossed like Frisbees from every corner of Anaheim Stadium.

Mo Vaughn’s three-run home run off reliever Mitch Williams in the sixth inning of Boston’s 12-1 victory over the Angels ignited the fans’ simmering anger.

If that had been the deciding factor in the Angels’ second consecutive loss to the Red Sox, it would be one thing, but Vaughn’s homer simply pushed Boston’s lead to 10-1. And it certainly pushed the fans’ buttons.

To be sure, Williams’ second meltdown in as many nights played a part in the lopsided score and the Angels’ first two-game losing streak this season. But credit also must go to Boston starter Tim Wakefield.

Wakefield and Williams were the stars of the game, but for far different reasons.

Wakefield fluttered knuckleball after knuckleball at the Angels and they flailed away without much success. Williams fluttered pitch after pitch at the Red Sox, who swatted them where they couldn’t be caught. He gave up three runs and three hits in 1 1/3 innings and his earned-run average ballooned to 9.82.

The shower of seat cushions came moments after Vaughn crossed the plate and delayed the game about five minutes. Williams stood on the mound, hands on hips, staring at the ground while teammates and groundskeepers worked to clear the field.

“That’s their prerogative,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “We will continue to play hard and they can react any way they want. We didn’t play well, but we played hard.”

It’s always something at Anaheim Stadium, where the Angels can look great in battering the New York Yankees for three games, but can go splat against Boston and a pitcher who hadn’t started a game in the major leagues since shutting out Philadelphia, 5-0, on Sept. 30, 1993.

In front of an announced crowd of 29,792, Wakefield baffled the Angels with his knuckleball, holding them to one run and five hits with four strikeouts and two walks in seven innings.

“I kind of had the jitters at first,” Wakefield said. “I had trouble finding the strike zone in the first inning, but I had some good defense behind me and we kept it to one run [in the first]. Then I settled down and we scored a lot of runs and that made it much easier.”

Offensive help came from Vaughn, whose homer was his 12th, and from light-hitting Luis Alicea, who went into the game batting .192 but left with a two-run homer, a double and a single.

In two games against the Red Sox, the Angels have been terrorized by the bottom of the order. In Boston’s 8-3 victory Friday, No. 7 hitter Reggie Jefferson hit a grand slam and Ron Mahay hit the first homer of his career to highlight a sixth-run sixth.

Saturday, it was Alicea’s turn.

The Red Sox gave Wakefield a 2-0 lead before he faced a batter. Good thing too. Wakefield promptly walked the first man he faced, leadoff hitter Tony Phillips, on four pitches.

Control had been the prime reason Wakefield had been in the minors, and not pitching very well down there.

He is best known for helping the Pittsburgh Pirates win the National League East title with an 8-1 record and 2.15 ERA in 1992. He also won two games in the league championship series against Atlanta in ’92.

Since then, he has been ineffective, however. Pittsburgh released him during spring training and Boston signed him to a minor league contract shortly thereafter. And in four starts at triple-A Pawtucket, he seemed to have solved his control problems. He was 2-1 with a 2.52 ERA before the Red Sox called him up last week.

After a rocky first inning, Wakefield settled into a groove, baffling the Angels repeatedly. They managed only a run-scoring single from J.T. Snow and Wakefield retired 10 in a row until Andy Allanson singled in the fifth.

Boston’s six-run sixth put the game out of reach and focused another round of questions about Williams’ effectiveness.

“I can’t put a date on it, but somewhere along the way he’s got to improve,” Lachemann said. “It’s not a mop-up job or something like that. The game is still winnable [when Williams entered with the Red Sox leading, 5-1].”