Dustin Pedroia throws to first in front of a sliding Maicer Izturis to finish a second-inning double play.

The Press-Enterprise / Silvia Flores

ANAHEIM, Calif. — This time of year, it is not supposed to be this easy.

There are no cupcakes left on the schedule, no teams to roll over. All of which makes the Red Sox’ sweep in the American League Division Series all the more impressive. It might take longer to say their vanquished opponent’s full name — the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim — than it did for the Sox to dispatch them for the winter.

If it wasn’t easy, it was certainly uncomplicated. The Red Sox outscored the Angels, 19-4, and came within an Eric Gagne appearance of posting two of their wins by shutout.

“They’re a great ball club,” said a gracious Mike Scioscia, the Angels’ manager, “and we just couldn’t match up with them.”

How dominant was the Red Sox’ pitching? The Angels scored in two of the 27 innings the series took to complete and held a lead for exactly 3 ½ innings.

How dominant was the Red Sox’ hitting? Until the ninth inning, the Sox had matched the Angels’ entire run output for the series with one mighty swing of the bat by Manny Ramirez on Friday night.

Their domination of the Angels was whole, it was complete and it was total.

“We played good baseball,” said general manager Theo Epstein, bathed in champagne in the Red Sox’ clubhouse. “Anytime you can play really well for three games in a row, it can’t help but give you more confidence. We kind of took them out of their game and never let them get into any kind of groove.”

With the benefit of hindsight, the Sox’ decision to spend the final 10 days of the regular season getting themselves set for October looks brilliant. Call it good timing or momentum — whatever it is, the Sox seemingly have a surplus of it.

The offense is fully engaged, led by Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, who combined for eight hits, 20 total bases, four homers and seven RBI.

But while Ortiz provided the winning margin in Game One and Ramirez’s walk-off blast was the difference in Game Two, the entire lineup contributed. For the series, the Sox slugged .495 as a team and got RBI from eight of their nine regulars.

“That speaks to our balance,” said Mike Lowell. “I think the fact that we can put together professional at-bats, one after another, says a lot about what our team is capable of doing.”

“It was very satisfying to see the way they’ve turned it up a notch in the playoffs,” said hitting coach Dave Magadan. “It’s not like we were facing slouches — they threw three pretty good starters at us. But we were patient and bided our time up there.”

Of course, it helps that, finally, the Red Sox have the right people in the right places.

“That’s a big part of it,” agreed Magadan. “For the first time in a long time, we’re using the lineup we wanted and it’s really starting to jell. And when you get those two guys (Ortiz and Ramirez) doing the damage they’re doing, it makes pitchers work that much harder. Mentally, it’s taxing, knowing that one bad pitch can make all the difference.”

Just ask Jered Weaver, who kept the Angels in the game into the sixth but left trailing, 2-0, on solo homers by Ortiz and Ramirez in the fourth.

The pitchers held the Angels to a .192 batting average for the series, and two of their three starters overmatched the Los Angeles lineup. On the occasions when they threatened yesterday, Schilling bore down and got big outs — the Angels were a paltry 1-for-13 with a walk with runners on base in yesterday’s elimination game.

The Sox showed a killer instinct, too, refusing to let the Angels gain any footing yesterday by getting back into the series.

“In a short series,” said a knowing Ortiz, “you don’t want to waste any time.”

In reality, the series had some astounding similarities to the Sox-Angels ALDS in 2004, which also resulted in a three-game sweep by the Sox.

Though the Angels had home-field advantage last time, that series — like this one — featured a walk-off homer at Fenway and two other rather lopsided victories by the Sox.

Can the Red Sox once again use this series as a springboard to a championship?

“We’ll see,” shrugged Ortiz.

Starting Friday.

smcadam@projo.com