Nothing is safe at Fenway

BOSTON -- The Angels are getting tired of this line of questioning, and some of the inquiries after another Fenway Park fade touched a few nerves Tuesday night.

Leadoff batter Jacoby Ellsbury hit a pair of solo home runs, Kevin Youkilis hit a tying, two-run homer in the fifth inning, and Dustin Pedroia hit a go-ahead, run-scoring double in the eighth to lift the Boston Red Sox to a 7-6 victory over the Angels.

The Angels let a four-run, fourth-inning lead slip away and have now lost 25 of 39 games, including the playoffs, in Fenway Park since Mike Scioscia took over as manager in 2000. They’ve also grown leery of any suggestion they are snake-bit here.

“To be honest with you, I’m tired of the [stuff] about our luck here,” said reliever Scot Shields, who gave up Pedroia’s eighth-inning hit and has a 16.39 career earned-run average in 12 games in Fenway. “They beat us, you move on to the next day.”

Pitching coach Mike Butcher’s sentiments, exactly.

“It’s not this place,” Butcher said. “We’re a baseball team, they’re a baseball team.

“We’ve got to win ballgames, whether we’re here, in Anaheim, Detroit, Kansas City, or anywhere else.”

Tuesday’s game seemed more winnable than most. Ace Josh Beckett, invincible last October, 2007 Cy Young Award runner-up, was scratched because of neck stiffness and replaced by David Pauley, a 24-year-old sinkerball specialist who was called up from triple-A Pawtucket.

Asked if, on such short notice, it was difficult to face a pitcher they’ve never seen before, Angels bench coach Ron Roenicke said, “I’d rather face anyone than Beckett.”

The Angels scored three runs in the third on Maicer Izturis’ double, Jeff Mathis’ RBI single, Erick Aybar’s double and Garret Anderson’s two-run single, and Mathis added a two-run homer over the Green Monster in left-center in the fourth for a 5-1 lead.

But the Red Sox did what they do best -- wear down opposing pitchers with patient, disciplined at-bats -- and drove starter Jered Weaver’s pitch count to 105 by the time he departed after five innings, remarkable considering Weaver did not walk a batter.

“Every time you come to this place, it’s a battle,” Weaver said. “They had a great approach against me. They know when to take and when to swing.”

Weaver gave up a homer to Ellsbury in the first and an RBI single to Julio Lugo in the fourth.

Pedroia doubled to lead off the fifth, David Ortiz smashed an RBI single to center, and Youkilis smoked a two-run homer to left for a 5-5 tie.

Ellsbury’s sixth-inning homer off reliever Darren O’Day gave Boston, which has won 10 of 11 games, a 6-5 lead.

The Angels had runners on second and third with one out in the seventh, but Red Sox reliever Hideki Okajima got Anderson to pop to third and struck out Torii Hunter to end the threat.

Angels first baseman Casey Kotchman led off the eighth with a fly ball that barely cleared the wall near the right-field foul pole, a homer that tied the score, 6-6, and marked the first run Okajima has given up in 8 1/3 innings this season.

But Ellsbury led off the eighth with a bunt single off reliever Darren Oliver, and Pedroia, facing Shields, grounded the last of his three doubles past diving third baseman Chone Figgins and into the left-field corner to score the speedy Ellsbury for a 7-6 lead.

“I was trying to get a ground ball there, and it got through,” Shields said. “Our hitters gave us a chance, and we weren’t able to hold it down.”

Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon was. He struck out Gary Matthews Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero and got Anderson to fly to left in the ninth for his eighth save.

“It seems,” Weaver said, “like nothing goes our way here.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com