BOSTON -- Manager Mike Scioscia broke out his little-ball attack at the worst possible time Monday night, and the Angels, almost predictably, came up little.
A botched suicide squeeze attempt cost the Angels a potential run in the top of the ninth inning, and Jed Lowrie's walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth gave the Boston Red Sox a 3-2, American League division series-clinching victory in Fenway Park, leaving the Angels stunned, disoriented . . . and angry. Very angry.
"We lost to a team that's not better than us," growled pitcher John Lackey, who gave up two runs and seven hits in seven innings. "We are a better team than they are. The last two days, we shouldn't have given up anything."
It wasn't so much Scioscia's squeeze call and Erick Aybar's missed bunt attempt that irked Lackey after the 100-win Angels, who had the best record in baseball and seemed built for a long October run, lost the series, three games to one.
"That's our style of baseball," Lackey said. "That got us here."
It was being eliminated by Boston for the third time in five years and watching the Red Sox pour out of their dugout to celebrate another walk-off win -- they had one in each of their division series victories over the Angels in 2004, 2007 and 2008.
It was seeing Boston score two runs in the fifth, which included Jacoby Ellsbury's run-scoring groundout and a fly-ball RBI double off the Green Monster in left field by Dustin Pedroia, who broke an 0-for-15 series slump.
"[Sunday] night they scored three runs on a pop fly that was called a hit, which was a joke," Lackey said, referring to Ellsbury's pop that fell between center fielder Torii Hunter and second baseman Howie Kendrick in Game 3.
"[Monday] night they scored on a broken-bat ground ball and a fly ball that anywhere else in America is an out, and he's fist-pumping on second base like he did something great."
Asked to describe his feelings, Lackey said, "Like I want to throw somebody through a wall."
There were much better vibes for the Angels in the eighth, when Hunter followed two-out walks to Mark Teixeira and Vladimir Guerrero and catcher Jason Varitek's passed ball with a two-run single to right off reliever Dustin Masterson to tie the score, 2-2.
Scot Shields retired the side in order in the bottom of the eighth, and Angels pinch-hitter Kendry Morales led off the ninth with a double to left-center.
