Kevin Youkilis walks away in disgust after striking out with a man in scoring position to end the third inning last night at gloomy Fenway Park.

The Journal / Gretchen Ertl

BOSTON — Going down the stretch, a team wants to be hitting on all cylinders.

The Boston Red Sox? They’re missing on all cylinders these days as the season hits the trading deadline and heads down the stretch.

The Sox can’t pitch, can’t hit, can’t field and haven’t seemed capable of keeping their heads in the game, either.

Last night’s 9-2 setback to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the best team in baseball, was one of the ugliest the Red Sox have played in a long time. In all facets of the game. Physical and mental. Errors on grounders. Errors on throws. Failure to back up throws. The Sox did it all.

And while things haven’t been quite this bad lately, the Sox’ performance last night was in keeping with their post-All-Star-break doldrums.

Boston is only 4-8 since the break, partially a function of facing good pitching and partially a function of the Manny Ramirez Saga, with the Sox’ $20-million-a-year left fielder clamoring to be shipped out by today’s 4 p.m. non-waiver trading deadline, a demand that has irritated and offended his teammates.

The Sox were in first place when they took their vacation from the schedule, and this morning they find themselves in second place, three games behind first-place Tampa Bay and tied in the loss column with the third-place New York Yankees.

The Angels have done much of the post-break damage. Last night’s win gave the Angels their second three-game sweep of Boston since the second half of the season resumed in Anaheim. Worst of all, Boston, which was 36-11 at home over the first half, is 1-5 at Fenway in the second half.

“That was a difficult one all the way around,” said manager Terry Francona. “There’s no way to get around that. There wasn’t a whole lot of pleasure watching that game tonight.”

Francona admitted the trading-deadline distractions fueled by Ramirez may have had an effect on the team’s play, but added it wasn’t a valid excuse.

“We need to pay attention to detail. We’ll sit down (tomorrow) as a team and try to make sure we play a certain way and we need to play better. That’s my responsibility. We’ll meet (tomorrow) and try to get this going in the right direction,” he said.

Where to start with last night’s disaster? How about on the mound with starting pitcher Josh Beckett?

The right-hander had his moments — namely eight whiffs. But when he missed his location, the salivating Angels hitters didn’t miss many opportunities to crush the baseball. Beckett was cuffed for 11 hits in 5 1/3 innings, driven out during the visitors’ put-away five-run splurge in the sixth. His chief tormentor was Garret Anderson, who was 3-for-3 with a homer and four RBI at Beckett’s expense.

Next disaster area? How about the offense? Or lack thereof. Again.

The Red Sox, who came within two outs of being no-hit by John Lackey the previous night, were stifled by Joe Saunders (14-5) last night. The Red Sox threatened in only one of his six innings, scoring two runs on a homer by Coco Crisp in the fifth, narrowing their deficit to 3-2.

Boston had runners at first and third with two outs in the inning, but Mike Lowell couldn’t deliver the tying run. He hit the ball hard, but his line drive was straight at right fielder Gary Matthews Jr. For the night the run-starved Red Sox went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

Another disaster area was the defense.

Boston was charged with a season-high four errors.

Catcher Jason Varitek couldn’t handle a two-hop throw from right fielder J.D. Drew as Torii Hunter scored on a single to right. Drew picked up that error.

Things went from bad to abysmal in a three-error, put-a-tent-on-this-circus horror show in the Angels’ five-run sixth. Beckett’s pickoff throw to second bounced into center for the first error, Varitek’s throw on a stolen-base attempt bounced under shortstop Jed Lowrie’s weak attempt at a scoop for an error, and Gold Glove first baseman Kevin Youkilis had a ball clang off his glove and leg for an error as the inning dragged on and on.

And those miscues don’t include Vladimir Guerrero’s popup that fell for a double between Lowrie, second baseman Dustin Pedroia and Crisp in center field.

OK, enough of the physical issues. The mental side of the game wasn’t any prettier for the pancake-flat Red Sox.

In the fourth, when Varitek was unable to handle Drew’s throw, where was Beckett? Watching the play from the mound. Where should he have been? Backing up Varitek behind the plate. His mental gaffe gave Anderson an extra base, though it didn’t come back to haunt him.

“I think that’s the first I’ve ever done that in my career,” said an embarrassed Beckett. “I’ve apologized to everybody I need to apologize to. It’s realty bad. There’s no excuse for it.”

In the sixth, when Guerrero’s popup fell safely, where was pitcher Manny Delcarmen? Watching the play from the mound. He had two choices on the play. Back up home plate, or go cover second, which was left vacant as Pedroia and Lowrie pursued the ball. The gimpy Guerrero, seeing the base unoccupied, limped and hobbled his way safely into second for a double.

The Sox can only hope the events of the trading deadline, whatever they may shake out to be, will provide them with a breath of fresh air and resolve over today’s day off and heading into a three-game series against Oakland that opens at Fenway tomorrow night.

“It’s tougher to focus when things aren’t going your way,” said Varitek, the team’s captain. “Our play just needs to be better.”

“We need to regroup (over the off day) and throw out all the bad karma and come back (tomorrow) and play good baseball,” added Lowell.

skrasner@projo.com