Socked Again

Try as they might, there is simply no way for the Angels to put a positive spin on Wednesday night’s 8-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox in Game 2 of the American League division series; no way to act as cool and detached as they have all season, when they figured they’d just bounce back from whatever calamity hit them that week.

Their $51-million ace couldn’t hold a two-run lead in the sixth inning, their lights-out reliever failed to hit the dimmer switch in the seventh, and the Angels did little to solve the riddle that is Pedro Martinez, the Red Sox right-hander who threw seven gutsy innings to continue his mastery over Anaheim.

Orlando Cabrera’s three-run double off Angel reliever Brendan Donnelly blew a tense game open in the ninth, and now, after a devastating loss before 45,118 in Angel Stadium, the Angels are down, 2-0, in this best-of-five series and must travel to Fenway Park for Game 3 Friday and Game 4, if necessary, Saturday.

Do you believe in miracles? Game 5 would be Sunday back in Anaheim.

It’s daunting enough knowing that of the 43 teams that have taken a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five series, 36 have gone on to win. Making the task even more difficult for the Angels: The Red Sox are 55-26 at home and scored 26 runs on 44 hits in a three-game Fenway sweep of the Angels Aug. 31-Sept. 2

“I think we’re probably in a position no one in this room has been in before,” Donnelly said, breaking up the silence in the Angel clubhouse. “It’s going to be interesting seeing how we go about the business of climbing out of this hole. We, as a team, have to play better baseball.”

There was no panic after the Angels lost Game 1 Tuesday. They lost the first game in each of their three playoff series during their 2002 World Series run, so why bother getting all worked up over a one-game deficit?

But late Wednesday night -- the 3-hour, 48-minute game ended near 11 p.m., or almost 2 a.m. in New England -- that indifference was replaced by the sober realization that to advance to the next round, the Angels will have to beat what many consider the league’s best team in one of baseball’s most hostile environments.

“We have a lot of confidence because we are home, and we play so great at home that anybody who goes to Fenway, we think we can beat,” said Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez, who drove in the go-ahead run with a seventh-inning sacrifice fly.

“So we are going to go out there with that kind of confidence because we know we are going to have our fans behind us.”

Martinez, who has a 9-1 career record against the Angels, shook off his four-game, season-ending losing streak, giving up three runs and six hits and striking out six, a fairly even match with Angel starter Bartolo Colon, who shook off a shaky start to go six innings, giving up three runs and seven hits.

The Angels had to like their chances entering the seventh inning of a 3-3 game when Manager Mike Scioscia summoned Francisco Rodriguez, who has been one of baseball’s most dominant relievers, with a 4-1 record, 1.82 earned-run average and 123 strikeouts in 84 innings.

But Bill Mueller opened the seventh with an infield single. Pinch-runner Dave Roberts was rubbed out on Johnny Damon’s fielder’s choice, and Mark Bellhorn walked. Rodriguez tried to bury a 1-and-2 slider in the dirt to Ramirez, but his patented strikeout pitch bounced away from catcher Jose Molina, allowing the runners to advance.

The Angels brought their infield in, and Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly to deep center to give the Red Sox a 4-3 lead.

Darin Erstad led off the bottom of the eighth with a single off reliever Mike Timlin, but Timlin struck out Vladimir Guerrero, left-hander Mike Myers came on to strike out Garret Anderson, and closer Keith Foulke came on to strike out Troy Glaus looking to end the inning. Foulke added a one-two-three ninth for the save.

“Boston got to our bullpen, which has been terrific all year,” Scioscia said. “The one thing that I think hurt us tonight, and it does bother us, is the fact we didn’t do the things offensively that we needed to do. We didn’t get our bunts down. We had a chance to go from first to third a couple times and didn’t take advantage of it. Those are the things we have to have in our game as we go back to Boston.”

The Angels took the lead in the fifth, scoring twice almost in spite of themselves, failing to get sacrifice bunts down in two at-bats but somehow managing to snap a 1-1 tie on Guerrero’s clutch hit.

Molina opened the inning with a bloop single. No. 9 hitter David Eckstein fouled off two bunts ... and lined an 0-and-2 pitch to center for a single. Figgins then popped out to third on his bunt attempt.

Martinez hit Erstad with his next pitch to load the bases for Guerrero, who lined a two-run single to right-center for his first postseason hit, advancing Erstad to third. Anderson followed with a wicked liner to first baseman Kevin Millar, who made the catch and stepped on the bag for an inning-ending double play.

Colon, whose pinpoint fastballs seemed to just elude the strike zone of umpire Jerry Meals most of the evening, appeared to be in good shape when he got Trot Nixon to bounce into a double play in the sixth.

Millar then singled to left, and with Donnelly warming up, Colon grooved a first-pitch fastball to Varitek, who blasted it into the right-field seats for a two-run home run and a 3-3 tie.

Colon was in trouble from the moment he left the bullpen after his pregame warmup, allowing Boston to load the bases in the first and second innings, when his pitch count quickly rose to 55.

Colon escaped the first-inning jam, getting Nixon to fly to shallow left and Millar to ground to short to end the inning.

Molina, the Angel catcher, extricated Colon from his second-inning mess with a pickoff at second, but not before Colon walked Ramirez to force in a run for a 1-0 Boston lead.

“Unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of practice at handling adversity,” Erstad said. “We’ve been through a lot, you’ve got to learn from it, and we have. We’ve got a bunch of fighters. We’re not going to give up.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

PLAY BY PLAY

FIRST INNING

* RED SOX: Johnny Damon singles to right. Mark Bellhorn singles to left, Damon to second. Manny Ramirez strikes out swinging. David Ortiz walks, Damon to third, Bellhorn to second. Trot Nixon flies out to left field. Kevin Millar grounds out to short. 0 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors, 3 left

* ANGELS: Chone Figgins grounds out to second. Darin Erstad grounds out to first. Vladimir Guerrero walks. Garret Anderson strikes out swinging. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 1 left

SECOND INNING

* RED SOX: Jason Varitek strikes out swinging. Orlando Cabrera lines out to center field. Bill Mueller singles to right field. Damon singles to right field, Mueller to third. Bellhorn walks, Damon to second. Ramirez walks, Mueller scores, Damon to third, Bellhorn to second. With Ortiz batting, Angel catcher Jose Molina picks off Bellhorn at second base. 1 run, 2 hits, 0 errors, 2 left

* ANGELS: Troy Glaus walks. Jeff DaVanon singles to left field, Glaus to second. Dallas McPherson singles to left, Glaus scores, DaVanon to second. Jose Molina bunts into force, DaVanon out at third, McPherson to second, Molina to first. David Eckstein flies out to center field. Figgins strikes out swinging. 1 run, 2 hits, 0 errors, 2 left

THIRD INNING

* RED SOX: Ortiz flies out to center field. Nixon flies out to left field. Millar lines out to shortstop. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left

* ANGELS: Erstad flies out to left field. Guerrero flies out to center field. Anderson grounds out to second base. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left

FOURTH INNING

* RED SOX: Varitek strikes out swinging. Cabrera flies out to right field. Mueller grounds out to shortstop. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left

* ANGELS: Glaus called out on strikes. DaVanon singles to center field. McPherson strikes out, and DaVanon is thrown out trying to steal second. 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 left

FIFTH INNING

* RED SOX: Damon grounds out to first base. Bellhorn lines out to first base. Ramirez grounds out to second base. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left

* ANGELS: Molina singles to left field. Eckstein singles to center field, Molina to second. Figgins bunts, pops out to third in foul territory. Erstad hit by pitch, Molina to third, Eckstein to second. Guerrero singles to right field, Molina and Eckstein score, Erstad to third. Anderson lines out to first base, Guerrero doubled off first base. 2 runs, three hits, 0 errors, 1 left

SIXTH INNING

* RED SOX: Ortiz singles on grounder to shortstop. Nixon grounds out into 4-6-3 double play. Millar singles to center field. Varitek hits two-run home run to right field. Cabrera grounds out to third base. 2 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 0 left

* ANGELS: Glaus pops out to first base. DaVanon grounds out to second base. McPherson is called out on strikes. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left

SEVENTH INNING

* RED SOX: Pitcher change -- Francisco Rodriguez replaces Bartolo Colon. Mueller singles on ground ball to second base. Dave Roberts pinch runs for Mueller. Damon grounds to shortstop, Roberts forced out at second, Damon reaches first on fielder’s choice. Damon steals second base. Bellhorn walks. Damon moves to third, Bellhorn to second on wild pitch. Ramirez hits sacrifice fly to center field, Damon scores. Ortiz intentionally walked. Nixon grounds out to first base. 1 run, 1 hit, 0 errors, 2 left

* ANGELS: Defensive substitution -- Kevin Youkilis replaces Mueller at third base. Casey Kotchman, pinch-hitting for Molina, lines out to pitcher. Eckstein flies out to left field. Figgins strikes out swinging. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left

EIGHTH INNING

* RED SOX: Defensive substitution -- Bengie Molina takes over at catcher. Doug Mientkiewicz, who will replace Mueller at first base, singles to right field. Varitek hit by pitch, Mientkiewicz to second. Cabrera strikes out on foul bunt. Youkilis strikes out swinging. Mientkiewicz to third, Varitek to second on wild pitch. Damon grounds out to second. 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, two left

* ANGELS: Pitcher change -- Mike Timlin replaces Pedro Martinez. Erstad singles to center field. Guerrero strikes out swinging. Pitcher change -- Mike Myers replaces Timlin. Anderson strikes out swinging. Pitcher change -- Keith Foulke replaces Myers. Glaus called out on strikes. 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 1 left

NINTH INNING

* RED SOX: Pitcher change -- Brendan Donnelly replaces Rodriguez. Bellhorn flies out to right field. Ramirez doubles to left field. Ortiz intentionally walked. Nixon singles to center, Ramirez scores, Ortiz to second. Gabe Kapler pinch-runs for Nixon. Ortiz to third, Kapler to second on wild pitch. Mientkiewicz grounds out to second base. Varitek intentionally walked. Cabrera doubles, Ortiz, Kapler and Varitek score. Cabrera to third on throw home. Youkilis flies out to right field. 4 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 1 left

* ANGELS: Defensive substitutions -- Pokey Reese replaces Bellhorn at second base, and Kapler becomes right fielder. DaVanon grounds out to pitcher. McPherson grounds out to second base. Curtis Pride, pinch-hitting for Molina, is called out on strikes. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left