BOSTON — After a one-out bunt single, Jacoby Ellsbury was perched on first base in a tie game in the eighth.

Ellsbury’s speed, and just the threat of the stolen base helped win the game for the Sox.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia replaced left-hander Darren Oliver with a right-hander, Scot Shields, even though lefties tend to hold runners better than righties. Shields paid careful attention to Ellsbury, who has stolen eight bases without being caught this year.

With Dustin Pedroia in the box, Shields stepped off the rubber and looked at Ellsbury. Then he threw a pitchout, with catcher Jeff Mathis firing to first in an unsuccessful attempt to pick him off.

Not surprisingly, Shields’ first pitch to Pedroia was a fastball (92 mph), giving Mathis a chance to throw out Ellsbury if he went. Shields tried to speed up his delivery by using the slide-step. Ellsbury stayed at first.

Ellsbury also stayed put on another fastball (92), again with Shields employing the slide-step, which can flatten out a pitch, taking off some of its movement. Pedroia took the pitch for a strike.

Now, with the count 2 and 1, Shields threw over to first. Ellsbury was safe. Then Shields stepped off the rubber and looked him back. Then he threw over, trying to hold Ellsbury close.

Pedroia, meanwhile, was ready for a fastball when Shields eventually made a pitch to the plate. And he did, another 92-mph heater using the slide-step. Pedroia was geared up for it. He turned on it and drilled the ball inside the third-base bag, the ball zipping into the left-field corner.

Ellsbury, displaying his speed, easily scored without a throw as the Sox snapped a 6-6 tie and ultimately won the game, 7-6.

They don’t always work out

Pitch to the righty or pitch to the lefty?

That was the decision staring at pitching coach John Farrell and Hideki Okajima in the seventh inning with runners at second and third and two outs and the Sox ahead, 6-5.

They opted to have Okajima face the right-handed hitter, with excellent results.

But in the eighth inning, Okajima faced the left-handed hitter, with depressing results, a game-tying first-pitch homer.

Sometimes the percentages just don’t work out.

In the seventh, the Angels’ right-handed hitter was Torii Hunter, who was 2-for-2 in his career against Okajima. They had the left-handed Casey Kotchman on deck. Right-handers were just 1-for-13 against Okajima heading into last night’s game. Lefties were 1-for-8.

Okajima went after Hunter. He changed eye levels.

He mixed his pitches. And he racked up a key strikeout.

Okajima got a call on the first pitch, an 88-mph fastball that was down. Then he went upstairs with an 88-mph fastball. Hunter couldn’t get his bat up to the ball, swinging and missing.

After Hunter was able to foul off an 83-mph splitter off the plate away, Okajima fired an 88-mph fastball that was up a bit, and again Hunter wasn’t able to get the bat on the ball, a whiff that ended the uprising.

In the eighth, though, Kotchman lofted a fly ball down the right-field line that sneaked its way past the Pesky Pole and into the seats, tying the score at 6-6.

A matter of inches

Over the first two innings, Boston starter David Pauley was in such command, there was premature talk about a perfect game.

One inning later, there was talk about who might be warming up soon for the Red Sox.

The difference between the perfect Pauley of the first two innings (6 up, 6 down) and the not-so-perfect Pauley of the third inning (3 runs on 4 hard hits) was a matter of inches.

In throwing only 24 pitches for the six outs over the first two innings, Pauley’s sinker was down in the strike zone where it needs to be for him to be successful, pitching around 88-91 mph on the radar gun.

Of those six outs, four came on grounders, one on a strikeout and the other on a liner to center.

In the third inning, though, his sinker was up maybe 4-5 inches in the zone — and it got whacked hard.

Maicer Izturis opened the inning with a double on a curveball and Jeff Mathis grounded a game-tying single up the middle on a decent sinker.

But Erick Aybar elevated a fat sinker for a ground-rule double into the Angels’ bullpen.

And after the dangerous Vladimir Guerrero had popped up a thigh-high, down-the-middle 90-mph sinker with the bases loaded and one out, Pauley paid for another high sinker to Garret Anderson, who drilled it to center for a tie-breaking two-run single that put Los Angeles on top, 3-1.

Then, in the fourth, an 88-mph sinker that didn’t sink was croaked by Mathis for a no-doubt-about-it two-run homer over the Green Monster in left-center, sinking the Sox into a 5-1 deficit and prompting manager Terry Francona to get Julian Tavarez up in the bullpen.

Pauley wound up working 4 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits and five runs in an 89-pitch outing.

Stayin’ alive

Stayin’ alive can be more important than looking good at the plate.

Leading off the first inning, Ellsbury took a very late and highly defensive swing at Jered Weaver’s 2-and-2 pitch, a 93-mph fastball.

He barely ticked the ball, and Mathis, the Angels’ catcher, thought he gloved it.

Mathis got out of his crouch as if getting ready to throw the ball around the infield, but the ball slipped out of his mitt, giving Ellsbury life at the plate.

Weaver and Mathis decided to come back with a changeup. They outsmarted themselves. After a tardy swing at a fastball, Ellsbury was right on the 84-mph changeup and lined it into the Angels’ bullpen for a homer and a quick 1-0 Boston lead.

Exact opposites

It has been well documented that, given his druthers, Manny Ramirez would play about 10 feet behind the shortstop in the field as Boston’s left fielder.

The Angels’ left fielder, Anderson, is the polar opposite when it comes to positioning at Fenway. Anderson plays about two steps shy of the warning track. no matter the hitter.

He plays basically in the same spot, whether it’s the power-packed Ramirez or the light-hitting Kevin Cash. That positioning, though, served him well in the fourth when Sean Casey drilled an opposite-field screamer to deep left.

Anderson had to lope back only a few steps in hauling in the drive on the warning track, making it a routine catch.

skrasner@projo.com