Little Thing May Haunt the Red Sox

There was only one glimmer of hope for the Angels at the end of an afternoon during which the Boston Red Sox looked so vastly superior.

If the Angels can somehow stay close to the Red Sox, the Terry Francona factor could be the difference. The Boston manager can’t be counted on to make the right decision, so anything that puts the game in his hands is a plus for the Angels.

Everything else the Sox have going for them was on display in a 9-3 victory at Angel Stadium on Tuesday. The offense that pounded home a major league-high 949 runs during the regular season racked up seven runs in the fourth inning. Orlando Cabrera absorbed everything hit near him at shortstop. And starter Curt Schilling controlled the Angels, giving up runs only when he was bored or distracted or bothered by a troublesome ankle.

“They don’t let distractions bother them,” Angel first baseman Darin Erstad said. “They step on the field and it’s game on. They have great players. When you get out there, you know it’s going to be a battle.”

That sizzling streak the Angels rode into the postseason has just been doused. Now they must generate the heat all over again.

“We were very good this year at turning the page,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.

That would sound a lot better if the Angels had a community literacy project scheduled for tonight instead of a meeting with Pedro Martinez.

The Angels will just have to hope that Vladimir Guerrero and Chone Figgins show more poise at the plate and in the field than they did in their first postseason starts.

And they’ll have to hope they can make it close enough to handle the Francona factor.

Francona is the Red Sox manager because Grady Little couldn’t live down his decision to leave Pedro Martinez in too long against the New York Yankees in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the American League championship series last year.

Francona prompted questions about whether he had learned from his predecessor’s mistakes when he stayed with a fading Martinez in a Sept. 24 loss to New York.

He won’t go down in the anguished Red Sox lore for a decision Tuesday, but it was curious.

He let Schilling take the mound in the seventh inning, even though the Red Sox led, 8-1, and Schilling had thrown 94 pitches and had tweaked an old ankle injury in the fifth.

Why put unnecessary strain on Schilling’s arm and ankle with a lead so comfortable even Colorado’s bullpen could hold it? Why not have Schilling call it a day, quit when he’s ahead and maybe, just maybe, have him ready to pitch Game 4 Saturday in Boston if need be?

Yes, Schilling is a workhorse, with 23 starts of at least seven innings this season and three complete games.

Even Schilling’s heart and his stats can’t stand up to 86 years’ worth of postseason frustration, so why try?

“He was fine,” Francona said. “We wanted him to get through that inning.”

Schilling couldn’t, the one thing he failed to do all day.

With one out, Darin Erstad took Schilling over the right-field wall. Schilling got Guerrero to fly to right, then Garret Anderson hit a weak ball that Schilling fielded himself. Schilling made an error on his throw to first base that allowed Anderson to make it all the way to third. Even worse, Schilling appeared to step awkwardly and grabbed his ankle.

Francona left him in to face one more batter, Troy Glaus, who’d had Schilling’s number all day. Glaus had a double, a home run and a walk in his first three trips to the plate, and this time he ripped another double that drove in Anderson.

Schilling said the ankle hadn’t affected him on the pitch, he’d just left the ball too much over the plate.

It was his last pitch of the day. Fortunately for Francona, neither his lead nor his pitcher was too damaged.

Francona, in his first postseason as a manager, doesn’t seem to think the rules change.

“It’s not really different,” he said of the experience. “I mean, the game is still played exactly the same.”

That’s not the picture Schilling painted, and I’d tend to side with the guy who has a World Series ring.

“This is a different time of year,” Schilling said, before explaining that his criteria for evaluating his performance alter and his level of attention to each pitch increases in the postseason.

Don’t think Scioscia will frame this scorecard, either.

His choice to go with a “defensive” lineup went awry when starting third baseman Figgins couldn’t handle a grounder in the first inning and he misfired on a throw to home in the fourth, leading to four unearned runs.

Now the Angels have to turn to their other asset, that chemistry they regained in the final two weeks of the season. It’s still there, as evidenced by the exchange between Figgins and starter Jarrod Washburn in the clubhouse. Figgins’ error cost Washburn any shot at winning the game, but Washburn walked over to him, patted him on the side and whispered some encouragement in his ear.

“Sleep good tonight,” Washburn told him as they parted.

And dream sweet dreams of Francona making the crucial call.

*

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.