Splitting It Down the Middle

One minute the Angels ran a successful wheel play, cutting down the lead runner in the eighth inning of a scoreless game with some nifty defensive work; the next minute the wheels came off for pitcher Paul Byrd.

One out away from escaping a two-on, none-out jam, Byrd, his afternoon virtually mistake-free until the eighth, grooved a fastball that Edgar Renteria drove for a three-run home run to catapult the Boston Red Sox toward a 5-1 victory Sunday in Angel Stadium.

“It’s amazing,” Byrd said afterward, his head seemingly still spinning. “I was cruising, I felt in control, I felt good, I felt strong. Then I don’t locate a few pitches, and, just like that, it’s 3-0.”

The 3-0 lead quickly became 5-0 when David Ortiz bunted for a single against Byrd and Manny Ramirez smashed a two-run home run against reliever Brendan Donnelly. That provided plenty of cushion for Curt Schilling, the temporary closer who struggled in his last relief effort before returning to the rotation, giving up Steve Finley’s run-scoring double before finishing off the Angels in the ninth.

Rookie right-hander Jonathan Papelbon threw 5 2/3 shutout innings, and reliever Mike Timlin added two scoreless innings for the Red Sox, who pushed their American League East lead over the New York Yankees to four games. The Angels remained 2 1/2 games ahead of Oakland in the AL West, thanks to Kansas City’s win over the Athletics on Sunday.

Most teams would be satisfied with a split of a four-game series against the defending World Series-champion Red Sox, a team with one of baseball’s most prolific lineups. But after taking a 2-1 series advantage behind rookie Ervin Santana’s masterful pitching performance Saturday, the Angels got a little greedy.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but at this point in the season, you’re not satisfied with a split,” Byrd said. “You want to win series, even against Boston. They’re at our place, Santana had a great performance for a rookie. I needed to do the same thing.”

He practically did. After slipping out of a two-on, one-out jam in the second by getting Tony Graffanino to fly to center and Gabe Kapler to ground out, Byrd faced the minimum 15 batters over the next five innings, retiring 13 in a row before Jason Varitek singled in the seventh and was wiped out on John Olerud’s 6-4-3 double play.

But Bill Mueller smacked Byrd’s first pitch of the eighth inning into left field for a single, and Graffanino lined Byrd’s second pitch into left for a single.

After fouling off his first bunt attempt, Kapler got a bunt down toward third, but with third baseman Chone Figgins charging hard and shortstop Orlando Cabrera covering the bag behind him, Figgins was able to force Mueller at third.

Johnny Damon then tapped a check-swing grounder to Figgins, who threw to first for the out, with both runners advancing. Renteria, who doubled in the first inning and flied out to the wall in center in the third, sent Byrd’s 1-and-0 fastball high and deep to left, just over the reach of left fielder Juan Rivera at the wall, for his seventh home run of the season (and first since June 22) to break the scoreless tie.

“They didn’t hit the ball exceptionally hard until that last inning, when I threw some balls right down the middle,” Byrd said. “You locate a slider on the outside corner, a fastball on the inside corner, they hit it, you tip your hat. When you throw balls down the middle, that’s what makes it tough.”

Byrd was trying to go down and away on the fastball to Renteria. The pitch was up and over the middle.

“I missed my spot by three feet, which is unacceptable,” Byrd said. “All I needed was one more out. I shouldered the loss today.”

Angel Manager Mike Scioscia was criticized this month for pulling starters too soon -- Santana left an Aug. 10 game against Oakland after giving up one run and four hits in six innings of a 4-3 loss; the next day, Byrd left after six shutout innings, and the bullpen blew a four-run lead in a 5-4 loss to the A’s.

Donnelly was warm in the eighth, but with Byrd just passing the 100-pitch mark when Renteria came up, Scioscia stayed with his starter, though he said his decision had nothing to do with his relievers’ recent struggles.

“Paul was still throwing the ball well,” Scioscia said. “After the wheel play, I liked the matchup with Damon, and we got the out. It looked like Paul had plenty left. He had good stuff. He just made a couple mistakes, and Edgar made him pay the price.”