Angel Pitchers Endure Wrath of Red Sox, Fans : Baseball: After Boston hitters get through punishing the team, 12-1, boobirds get into the act.

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

Mo Vaughn’s three-run homer 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. He and Williams were the stars of the game, but for far different reasons.

Wakefield fluttered knuckleball after knuckleball at the Angels, who 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 on 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 with the 10th Red Sox run 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 of the fans. “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 straight 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.”

Williams’ funk continued. He failed to get an out in Friday’s 8-3 loss, giving up three runs with two walks and one hit. Saturday, he had the Red Sox feeling sorry for him.

“I feel bad for the guy,” Vaughn said after hitting his 12th homer of the year. “[But] I have to do my job. If he could throw strikes consistently, he’d be very effective.”

Boston’s six-run sixth put the game out of reach and prompted a new round of questions about Williams’ wildness.

“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 winable [when Williams entered].”

Boston got more offensive help from light-hitting second baseman Luis Alicea, who went into the game hitting .192 but left with a two-run homer, a double, a single and a .221 average.

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, Tony Phillips, on four pitches.

Control trouble kept Wakefield in the minors in 1994. He is best known for helping the Pittsburgh Pirates win the National League East title with an 8-1 record and 2.15 earned-run average in 1992. He also won two games in the league championship series against Atlanta in ’92.

Since then, he’s been ineffective. Pittsburgh released him in spring training and Boston later signed him to a minor-league contract. 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 in to confuse the Angels repeatedly. They managed only an run-scoring single from J.T. Snow and Wakefield retired 10 in a row until Andy Allanson singled in the fifth.