The Angels’ John Lackey, above, very nearly became the first opposing pitcher since the Tigers’ Jim Bunning in 1958 to pitch a no-hitter at Fenway Park. At right, Dustin Pedroia heads for first after breaking up Lackey’s bid with one out in the ninth inning.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

BOSTON — Note to all major-league pitchers: Call Fenway Park and ask to speak with Red Sox director of grounds Dave Mellor and find out what he puts on the mound, because whatever it is, it’s magical.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitcher John Lackey nearly recorded the third no-hitter at Fenway Park in less than a year last night, but the right-hander saw his no-hit bid squashed in the bottom of the ninth inning when the Sox’ Dustin Pedroia provided a one-out single through the left side of the infield. Teammate Kevin Youkilis followed with a home run, but it wasn’t enough as Lackey and the Angels still won, 6-2.

Lackey had everything working. He had pinpoint control and was very deceptive until Pedroia pulled a slider through the hole for the Sox’ first hit.

“He was awesome,” said Pedroia. “He put on a show. We hit some balls hard, but right at guys. Once he gets the lead we know what he’s going to do — he attacks the zone and there’s no secret about him because he has great stuff. We didn’t do anything. They were great and we didn’t do much.”

In a crisp 2:28 game, the Angels scored a pair of runs in the third, fourth and seventh innings off Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz, who dropped to 2-6 on the season.

Ironically, the 23-year-old knows exactly how tough it is to throw a no-hitter. He accomplished that feat in only his second major-league start, on Sept. 1, 2007, against the Orioles at Fenway. While he struggled last night, he watched Lackey dominate.

“He fell a little short,” said Buchholz, “but that doesn’t take anything away from the game he threw tonight. He threw a gem. He deserved to win because he pitched better than I did.”

What’s more impressive about Lackey’s outing is the fact that of the nine hitters in the Sox’ order, six had lifetime averages above .300 against him. In fact, Pedroia entered the game with a .444 average (nine career at-bats), and Manny Ramirez had a .480 average in 25 career at-bats against the Angels’ starter.

To almost no-hit the Sox’ lineup was impressive.

“It shows just how mentally tough he is,” said Buchholz. “He was able to throw every pitch for a strike, even when he was behind in the count. That’s what it takes, you’ve got to have confidence in all your pitches and know you can throw a certain pitch at a certain time. He showed that tonight.”

While the news of the night was Lackey’s performance, the story of the second half of the season so far for the Red Sox is a 4-6 record.

To their credit, the Red Sox players tipped their caps and gave Lackey and the Angels their due last night. But, Boston is not too happy with the way it has been playing since the All-Star break.

“I don’t think we got any consolation with getting a hit in the ninth, though,” said a frustrated Mike Lowell. “The game is a lot more important than that. [Lackey] pitched a great game, needless to say, but we can’t keep going into the third game of a series, trying not to get swept. That’s not really a recipe for staying in the pack with the leaders in the division.

“If we continue this way, we won’t have to worry at all because we’re not going to make the playoffs,” added Lowell. “We want to play a lot better. By no means does this mean we can’t make the playoffs, but we have to consistently play a better game of baseball. There is a lot of room for improvement for us, but we definitely don’t want to wait.”

After last night’s game, Pedroia didn’t feel like a hero because he broke up the no-hit bid. If anything, he was more disappointed with the team’s lack of success of late, too.

“We’re not playing good baseball,” he said. “I think it’s time to start doing that. It’s not like anybody in our division will lose consecutive games. Everyone is playing good and it seems like we’re not. We’ve got to figure it out.”

Pedroia pointed to the club’s lack of energy for its recent sub-par play.

“We’ve got to start playing hard and start to win games,” added Pedroia. “We got beat in every aspect of the game. They whopped us. … Nobody brought any energy and nobody did anything. They killed us. It felt like we weren’t even in the game.”

Even though the Red Sox are struggling, the 38,110 in attendance last night almost saw the third no-hitter at Fenway since September. Along with Buchholz’s, teammate Jon Lester recorded one on May 19 of this season against the Kansas City Royals.

“Whatever it is,” said Lester of the mound at Fenway, “they should bottle it up and sell it.”

jmcdonal@projo.com