Schilling Slows the Angels, 6-2

The Boston Red Sox might have just made Arte Moreno’s decision whether to pursue Randy Johnson a lot easier.

Moreno’s Angels did just fine against Red Sox pitchers not named Pedro Martinez or Curt Schilling during a four-game weekend series at Angel Stadium. Against Boston’s top two starters, though, the Angel batters turned to mush and their pitchers couldn’t keep up.

Schilling stifled the Angels for eight innings Sunday afternoon in the Red Sox’s 6-2 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 43,613.

John Lackey pitched like an ace for five shutout innings before unraveling in the sixth, when David Ortiz tagged an inside fastball for a three-run homer that propelled Boston to a series split and a 1 1/2-game lead over the Angels in the wild-card standings. The Angels trail the Texas Rangers by four games in the American League West.

While Martinez and Schilling limited the Angels to three runs in 14 innings during the series, their counterparts, Kelvim Escobar and Lackey, gave up eight runs in 12 innings against lineups devoid of slugger Manny Ramirez, who sat out three of the four games because of tight hamstrings.

Lackey had recorded 10 consecutive outs and a season-high seven strikeouts before walking Johnny Damon with one out in the sixth. Mark Bellhorn then singled through the right side of the infield before Ortiz pounced on Lackey’s 1-and-0 pitch.

“I probably only missed by a couple of inches,” Lackey said of a pitch that ended up on the other side of the right-field wall, “but that’s all it takes with a good hitter.”

Lackey hit the next batter, Nomar Garciaparra, with a pitch, prompting home plate umpire Kevin Kelley to warn both dugouts despite the protestations of Angel Manager Mike Scioscia, who argued that his pitcher did not mean to hit the Boston shortstop.

Lackey said he merely slipped while making his delivery, and the matter seemed to be forgotten as the right-hander went on to escape a bases-loaded jam to end the sixth.

But two innings later Schilling threw a pitch that hit Bengie Molina, who had hit a home run in the third, forcing Scioscia to race out of the dugout and call for Schilling’s ejection.

Scioscia wound up getting tossed instead, leaving his players to ponder what might have been had they not surrendered three more runs in the seventh.

“It would have been nice to get three out of four,” left fielder Tim Salmon said of the series.

“We had a really well pitched game for about six innings and things kind of got away.”

Gabe Kapler opened the seventh with a homer to left-center and Damon followed with a double to left before Scioscia pulled Lackey (7-9), who gave up five runs in six-plus innings to lose for the first time in six starts.

“That’s a fine offensive ballclub over there, and there’s not a lot of room for error if you’re going to get into a rut,” Scioscia said. “John just got out of his mechanics a little bit.”

Schilling (12-4) retired the first seven batters preceding Molina’s homer and later retired nine in a row before David Eckstein doubled with one out in the sixth. But Schilling, who had not pitched since July 8, escaped the inning unscathed and improved to 9-1 when working on more than four days’ rest.

“He showed why he’s one of the top pitchers in the game,” Scioscia said of Schilling, who gave up three hits and one run, striking out seven and walking none. “We didn’t have a lot of opportunities and when we did, he made some good pitches to shut the door.”

Boston is 27-11 when either Martinez or Schilling starts, a statistic that would seem to bode well should the Red Sox reach the playoffs.

By comparison, the Angels are 23-14 when their top two starters, Bartolo Colon and Jarrod Washburn, pitch, a surprisingly good record considering Colon has gotten off to the worst start of his career.

“You’re talking about two of the best in the game,” Salmon said of the Red Sox’s aces.

“Any time you’re throwing Pedro’s name out there, you’re talking the best in the game. So it’s not necessarily fair for anyone to make any comparisons next to those guys, but I think we have good pitching.”