Angels have picked a bad time to suffer an identity crisis

BOSTON -- It was appropriate that Manny Ramirez, arms raised, eyes wide, stood still at home plate for several long seconds in the chill of early Saturday morning.

That is how the Angels spent much of Friday night.

Frozen.

It was appropriate that his game-winning home run was hit so hard, it soared over the Green Monster and down onto adjoining Lansdowne Street.

This is how the Angels are coming home today.

Crushed.

It was a game they should have won. It was a game the Angels always seem to win. It was a night of scratching and clawing and every cliche that has led to seemingly every great Angels postseason win in the Mike Scioscia era.

Only this time, it was the Angels who were left with bloody streaks across their faith and chunks missing from their psyche.

On Ramirez’s two-out, three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth, the Boston Red Sox defeated the Angels , 6-3, to take a usually insurmountable two-games-to-none lead in the best-of-five-game American League divisional playoffs.

The Red Sox ended the night dancing wildly around Fenway Park’s home plate, their fans bouncing and hugging and singing around them, the nutty joy of folks who had just been handed a winning lottery ticket.

Or stole it.

The Angels accumulated just two hits in 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

The Angels walked nine batters, three of whom scored.

The Angels lost another run after an out was stolen from the glove of catcher Jeff Mathis by a skinny teenager in the front row of the box seats.

Then they lost the game when they intentionally walked David Ortiz for the fourth time to pitch to Ramirez, who finally made them pay.

“It’s just a little game he’s been playing,” Ramirez said of Scioscia.

Game over.

“Even when you don’t feel good and get big hits, you’re a bad man,” Ramirez said.

The Angels will now limp back to Anaheim for Sunday’s Game 3 with a sore Vladimir Guerrero, who left the game shortly after being hit in the shoulder by a pitch.

The Angels will limp back with the back of their bullpen having thrown 65 pitches.

The Angels will limp back after a long flight filled with questions about how they could spend such a long time looking so unlike, well, the Angels.

“It’s not a desirable position,” said Scioscia, adding, “We really have to get into that mode and scratch and claw our way back into the series.”

He paused.

“It can be done,” he said.

Few would agree, especially the Red Sox, who will fly west feeling like Lady Luck is in the cockpit. When asked about the flight, in fact, their closer Jonathan Papelbon talked about a poker game.

“Well, hopefully I’ll take all of David Ortiz’s money, and if Manny wants to jump in, I’ll take his paycheck, too,” said Papelbon.

They’ve already fleeced the Angels, or, rather, watched them fleece themselves.

The Angels’ troubles started in the third inning, after they had taken a 3-2 lead, after Garret Anderson had led off with a bloop double, opening the door for typical Angels uprising against struggling Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Macier Izturis was going to hit the ball to the right side and move Anderson to third base, right? Not tonight. Izturis didn’t wait for a pitch he could pull. He swung at the first pitch and hit it in the opposite direction, directly at shortstop Julio Lugo.

Nobody was more stunned than Anderson, who foolishly ran for third and was thrown out, ruining the inning.

“We didn’t get enough done offensively tonight,” Scioscia said.

In the fourth there were more oddities, after Howie Kendrick led off with a single. Up stepped struggling Jeff Mathis in a perfect opportunity for a bunt.

But Mathis didn’t bunt. He didn’t even wait for a pitch that he could have bunted. He swung at the first pitch, fouled out, and four pitches later the inning was over.

It happened again with two guys on base in the fifth inning against new reliever Javier Lopez. This time Kendry Morales lasted two pitches, hitting a grounder to end the inning.

“We have to get to that pitch-to-pitch approach and press this team more,” said Scioscia. “We saw a little bit of it tonight, not quite enough.”

In the eighth, Scioscia was so desperate to manufacture runs that he used Juan Rivera as a pinch-hitter for Mathis in the middle of an at-bat.

With the count 1-and-1 on Mathis, Rivera entered the batter’s box and eventually drew a walk. But, there again, Chone Figgins ended the inning with runners on second and third by watching a called third strike.

All of which made the fifth-inning steal of Ramirez’s foul ball by 17-year-old Danny Vinik just perfect.

The ball went into the stands, Mathis put his glove under it, but Vinik snatched it away bare-handed. Ramirez then walked to load the bases, and Mike Lowell knocked in a run with a fly ball.

“When you go into the stands, all bets are off,” Scioscia said.

Those bets being off for the inning, off for the night, and perhaps off for the season.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.