Tim Wakefield, throwing to first to hold a runner in the first inning, kept the Angels guessing last night.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BOSTON — The game plan was pretty obvious.

Angels starter John Lackey was planning on feeding Red Sox slugger David Ortiz a steady diet of curveballs. Make that a virtually exclusive diet of breaking balls.

And, after a first-pitch fastball to Ortiz in the first inning, Lackey threw 11 straight breaking balls to Boston’s powerful designated hitter, with great success.

Lackey struck out Ortiz in the opening inning when Ortiz was unable to hold up on a nasty down-and-in curveball. In the third, six straight breaking balls resulted in a full-count swing and a miss for another strikeout.

The Angels right-hander’s first two pitches to Ortiz in the fifth, also breaking balls down and in with some nice bite to them, had Lackey up in the count at 0 and 2 with a runner at second and two outs and the game tied at 1-1.

Ortiz didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know what pitch would be coming next. The curveball, the 12th in a row.

This time, though, Lackey didn’t get the pitch where he wanted it. This time, the pitch had only a little bend to it, but it stayed more in the inner half of the plate, about thigh high.

And Ortiz, one of the game’s great clutch hitters, didn’t miss the mistake. He drilled it to right for a single, putting the Sox on top, 2-1.

A change of pace

Different hitters. Different degree of respect from Tim Wakefield and the Red Sox.

In the first inning, the Sox knuckleballer fell behind Orlando Cabrera, the number two hitter in the Angels’ order, at 3 and 1. Wakefield’s next pitch was a 76 mph fastball on the outer part of the plate, which Cabrera took for a called strike, making it a full count.

Cabrera clearly expected a patented Wakefield knuckler on 3 and 2, got another 76 mph fastball on the outside corner and couldn’t pull the trigger, taking it for a called third strike.

That brought up the fearsome Vladimir Guerrero, who boasts an American League MVP Award. The count to the free-swinging Guerrero also reached 3 and 1.

But Wakefield wasn’t going to gamble on slipping a BP fastball past him. He threw a knuckler on 3 and 1 (ground ball foul, wide of third) and then another one on 3 and 2 (wide, in the dirt), satisfied in giving Guerrero a walk rather than risk having the Angels’ right fielder jack a fastball out of the park.

A rally killer

Guerrero is one of the game’s most dangerous, productive hitters, but his baserunning instincts aren’t always the best.

In the fourth inning, after Cabrera led off with a walk and stole second, Guerrero notched the Angels’ first hit of the game, a ground-ball single through the right side.

Red Sox right fielder J.D. Drew charged the ball but took an extra crow hop before getting into position to throw home, making it unlikely he’d be able to throw out Cabrera at the plate. And when Drew finally did let the ball go, he threw to the cutoff man, first baseman Kevin Youkilis.

Guerrero, though, had committed to going toward second, assuming Drew would be throwing home instead of aggressively rounding the bag but waiting to see if the throw sailed over the cutoff man’s head.

As a result, Guerrero was a dead duck between first and second, choking off a rally before it had a chance to get going.

Perfect position

Manny Ramirez plays a very shallow left field in Fenway Park.

The thinking is that any ball over his head is going to go off the Green Monster, anyway, so he might as well play in and try to steal hits from the opposition on balls hit over shortstop.

Last night, that positioning paid off in the fifth inning.

Howie Kendrick laced a liner over short, a ball that generally falls for a single. But because Ramirez was playing in, he was able to make the catch.

It’s a start

Sometimes one good at-bat can help a batter pull out of a slump.

Dustin Pedroia can only hope that is the case.

With two outs in the sixth inning, Pedroia, hitless in his last 14 at-bats, gave Lackey a good battle, fouling off a few difficult two-strike pitches.

Pedroia wound up winning the personal battle, smacking a 2-and-2 pitch through the left side for a single, halting, at least temporarily, his offensive slide. He walked in his final at-bat of the night.

Here’s the plan . . .

Disregard the batting average. Angels manager Mike Scioscia did.

Even though Ramirez was batting a paltry .194 (6 for 31) for the season, Scioscia elected to have hard-throwing right-handed reliever Chris Bootcheck issue an intentional walk to him with a runner at second and one out.

Scioscia doesn’t have to be reminded that Ramirez has power, even if he has yet to hit one out this season. And Ramirez has power to right-center, which happened to have been the direction of the strong wind last night, which helped Mirabelli go deep in the fifth. Hence, the walk.

Scioscia preferred a matchup of Darren Oliver facing Drew, a left-handed hitter. Oliver, though, walked Drew and served up Mike Lowell’s sacrifice fly, putting the Angels in a three-run hole.

Men on the move

Movement on the bases helped the Sox take a 3-1 lead in the sixth.

After Drew walked, leading off the inning, Boston manager Terry Francona put him in motion for a hit-and-run with a 1-and-1 count on Lowell. Lowell hit a hard grounder to third, a routine double-play ball.

But because Drew was on the move, Maicer Izturis’s only play was to first. Drew eventually scored on a two-out single by Mirabelli.

The ploy worked so well in the sixth, Francona tried it again in the seventh, and again the move helped the Sox score a run. This time Youkilis was on first, and he took off on a 3-and-1 pitch to Ortiz.

Ortiz ripped a one-hopper to Kendrick, the Angels’ second baseman. Kendrick had to make the play to first, with Youkilis sliding safely into second. Youkilis ultimately scored on a sacrifice fly by Lowell, making it a 4-1 game.

skrasner@projo.com