Red Sox Ground Angels : Baseball: Hudler fails to make proper contact in critical at-bat, enabling Boston to escape with a 3-2 victory.

Rex Hudler doesn’t get too many opportunities like the one he had Monday night: Runners on second and third, one out in the eighth inning, your team trailing by a run, chance to be the hero.

That’s what made the seldom-used Angel utility player’s weak popup to shortstop--one of several lost opportunities in a 3-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox before a paid crowd of 22,027 in Fenway Park--so difficult to stomach.

“That last pitch was a belt-high fastball, a perfect pitch to drive,” said Hudler, who started in place of injured second baseman Damion Easley. “They should hire my wife and put her out there in No. 10--they might get a better result.”

With Boston’s infield playing back and conceding a run, all Hudler needed against reliever Stan Belinda was a ground ball to tie the score.

He took the first pitch for a strike, then swung at the second pitch like he wanted to put a dent in the Green Monster, Fenway Park’s famed left-field wall.

Hudler missed badly, then tapped the next pitch to shallow left field, where Boston shortstop Terry Shumpert made an easy catch. Spike Owen then lined to right field for the third out.

“I would have liked to get the grounder, but I was taking what he was giving me, and he was throwing everything up,” Hudler said. “So I tried to put the ball in play hard off the wall. I just couldn’t get the job done.”

He wasn’t the only one. The Angels outhit Boston, 11-7, but the Red Sox were better in the clutch.

Mo Vaughn, the Red Sox first baseman who leads the American League in home runs and runs batted in, snapped a 2-2 tie with a towering, and somewhat wind-aided, home run to right-center field in the fourth inning.

It appeared center fielder Jim Edmonds might have a play on the ball, but it landed just to the right of where the outfield fence juts from 420 to 380 feet and separates the playing field from the Red Sox bullpen.

“That was hit so high I didn’t think it was going to come down,” Edmonds said. “It was over the lights and I couldn’t even see it. It was like a shadow in the sky.”

Angel right fielder Tim Salmon hit a two-run home run into the screen above the left-field wall in the first inning, and Boston designated hitter Reggie Jefferson, who hit a grand slam in Boston’s 8-3 victory over the Angels on May 26, answered with a two-run homer in the bottom of the first.

But the Angels, who have 24 hits but only five runs in the past two games, could do no further damage against Boston starter Erik Hanson (6-0), who gave up seven hits in seven innings.

“We had our chances to win the game and couldn’t finish them off,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said.

Chili Davis, who went three for four, reached on an infield single with one out in the third, stole second and took third on a wild pitch. With the Boston infield playing halfway, J.T. Snow chopped a grounder to second, but Davis didn’t get a good jump and held. Hudler then flied out.

Edmonds lined to left with runners on first and second and two out in the fourth, Hudler didn’t come through in the eighth, and Gary DiSarcina and Tony Phillips each struck out against Boston closer Ken Ryan after Jorge Fabregas singled to lead off the ninth.

Edmonds singled to left, but Salmon, swinging at a 2-0 pitch, sliced a fly ball to right field for the final out.

It was Boston’s seventh consecutive victory and extended its lead to nine games in the AL East.

Wasted was a solid pitching performance by Angel starter Mike Bielecki (2-2), who gave up six hits and struck out five in six innings.

Mike Butcher pitched two innings of scoreless relief.