A long night for the Angels

There was a long ball, and there was some l-o-n-g ball Wednesday night in Angel Stadium, where Boston second baseman Dustin Pedroia broke a seventh-inning tie with a home run, and the Red Sox and Angels played at a glacial pace that took them deep into the evening.

In the end, the 4-hour, 2-minute marathon, which matched the longest time for a nine-inning home game in Angels history, boiled down to a battle between two of the best bullpens in baseball, a game within the game that the Red Sox won rather handily en route to a 9-6 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 44,243.

Pedroia led off the seventh with his fifth home run of the season off reliever Justin Speier, a drive that nicked off the glove of leaping left fielder Garret Anderson above the wall and fell into the bullpen for a 7-6 Boston lead.

The Red Sox scored two unearned runs off set-up man Scot Shields in the eighth, a rally that started when Coco Crisp struck out but took first on catcher Jeff Mathis’ passed ball.

Brandon Moss singled to center, and both runners advanced on Shields’ wild pick-off throw to second. Julio Lugo flied to deep left to score Crisp, and Moss scored on Shields’ wild pitch to give the Red Sox a 9-6 lead.

Boston, meanwhile, got some stellar relief from left-hander Hideki Okajima, who struck out Orlando Cabrera on a nasty changeup with a runner on third to end the sixth and threw a scoreless seventh. That lowered his earned-run average to 0.98 in 55 1/3 innings this season.

Recently acquired right-hander Eric Gagne came on for the eighth and escaped a two-on, one-out jam by striking out Chone Figgins and getting Cabrera to pop to second.

Next up was closer Jonathan Papelbon, who retired the side in order for his 26th save, as the Red Sox salvaged the final game of a three-game series and increased their American League East lead over the New York Yankees to six games. The Angels’ AL West lead over Seattle was trimmed to three games.

“They can shorten a game as well as we can,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said of the Red Sox bullpen.

“I think our bullpen can pitch with them. We just didn’t get it done tonight. When you play a team like that, I think, in the middle innings, it’s important to grab the lead. We couldn’t get enough of one.”

Outside of Boston’s relief work, the action wasn’t very crisp, Coco or otherwise. The teams needed 2 hours, 20 minutes to complete five innings and settle nothing -- the score was tied, 6-6, heading into the sixth.

The Angels used seven singles off Jon Lester to score once in the first inning and twice in the second, Cabrera knocking in a run with a groundout, Erick Aybar driving in a run with a single and Figgins hitting a sacrifice fly.

The Red Sox pounded Dustin Moseley for four runs and five hits in the fourth, which featured singles by Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, a two-run double by Manny Ramirez and RBI doubles by J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell.

Back came the Angels in the bottom of the fourth. Aybar and Reggie Willits walked and pulled off a double steal. Both scored on Figgins’ double to right for a 5-4 lead.

The Red Sox countered with some aggressive running of their own. Lugo and Pedroia led off the fifth with singles and pulled off a double steal.

Youkilis hit a sacrifice fly to center to tie the score, 5-5, and Pedroia later scored on Lowell’s RBI single to give Boston a 6-5 lead.

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com