Angels catcher Jeff Mathis throws the ball back to the mound as Manny Ramirez reacts to the strike-two call in the eighth.

AP / Matt A. Brown

ANAHEIM, Calif. — For six innings, it was last October again and Josh Beckett was on top of the world. Certainly, he was on top of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Chone Figgins, the Angels’ leadoff hitter, had made it to third base in the first inning, but after that, the Angels didn’t get a base runner past first until Figgins sliced a one-out double in the sixth. Beckett took care of that scare, too, when he struck out Casey Kotchman and retired Maicer Izturis on an inning-ending flyout to center.

Through six innings, the Angels had themselves four hits and only three had left the infield. Beckett’s command was impeccable, too, with nary a walk.

He had made Kevin Youkilis’ second-inning homer stand up and with his pitch count modest, a complete-game shutout — just like the one he authored in Game One of the ALDS last fall — seemed in order.

But the seventh inning was a different story. Vladimir Guerrero turned on a first-pitch fastball to slice the Sox’ lead in half and the homer had the additional affect of energizing the Angels.

Two singles, a sacrifice, an intentional walk and a bases-clearing pinch-hit triple later, the Red Sox’ lead had disappeared completely and so too did Beckett’s invincibility in a 4-2 win by the Angels.

The loss was the second straight for the Sox coming out of the All-Star break and fourth in a row on the road. In their last dozen games away from home, the Sox are a measly 3-9.

Erick Aybar, batting for catcher Jeff Mathis, delivered the game-changing hit on a changeup from Beckett that the pitcher acknowledged “got too much of the plate. That was a pretty poor pitch selection on my part and the execution wasn’t there.”

For his part, Beckett didn’t flash back to last October’s playoff opener, chiefly because, the numbers to the contrary, “I had to battle a little more today. I didn’t have the great stuff.”

Beckett fell to 9-6 with a 3.98, a far cry from his 20-win season a year ago. He was seeking his third straight win yesterday, but only one of those outings qualified as a quality start.

Most starts this year, Beckett has either suffered from poor run support — yesterday marked the seventh time in 18 starts in which his teammates scored two runs or fewer while he was in the game — or a bad inning on his part. Yesterday, he was saddled with both.

“ Yesterday, Youkilis hit another two-run belt — like Friday’s, it came in the second inning — but the Sox were then blanked over the next seven innings. They stranded 12 runners yesterday, including two in the ninth inning against Francisco Rodriguez, who got Ramirez and Mike Lowell to pop up meekly for the final two outs.

Ramirez was facing Rodriguez, the American League save-leader, for just the second time since he beat him with a walk-off homer in the 10th inning of Game Two of that same ALDS sweep.

Was Ramirez thinking back to that matchup yesterday?

“I have no idea,” said Ramirez, before politely excusing himself from a gaggle of reporters.

“Not at all,” said Rodriguez, when asked the same question. “I still have to get the job done. I can’t live in the past. What he did last year, I’ve just got to move on. He gets paid to hit and I get paid to get people out.”

With runners in scoring position, the Sox were a woeful 1-for-12. Two double plays hurt, and the Sox left the bases loaded in the eighth and stranded two on three other occasions.

Terry Francona bemoaned the lack of a key two-out hit — they had just two yesterday — but gave credit to the Angels pitching staff, too. Starter Joe Saunders, who was moved up a day in the rotation due to the stiff neck of teammate Jon Garland, stymied the Sox, limiting them to two runs in 6 2/3 innings.Angels

4

Red Sox

2

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smcadam@projo.com