The Red Sox bench had nothing to get excited about in Thursday night's Game One.

AP photo / Jae C. Hong

ANAHEIM, Calif. –– If Game One is all about gaining momentum, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim took full advantage of the situation with solid pitching and timely hitting.

Starting pitcher John Lackey and teammate Torii Hunter led the way as the Angels quickly put to the rest any notion that the Red Sox would easily win this American League Division Series.

Lackey worked 7 1/3 scoreless innings and allowed only four hits, while Hunter crushed a three-run homer to help the Angels to a 5-0 victory Thursday night at Angel Stadium. It was the longest postseason outing of Lackey’s career.

"Lackey pitched a great game. That’s fine. No one said this was going to be easy," said Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell. "He spotted well and threw a lot of fastballs. He hit his spots and executed. He did a good job. Sometimes you can’t lay blame, you have to give credit."

Red Sox starter Jon Lester, who against the Angels in the 2008 ALDS made two appearances in which he did not allow an earned run in 14 innings, worked six innings and allowed three runs on four hits on Thursday. He walked four and struck out five and surrendered the homer to Hunter.

"I left the ball up and he hit it," said Lester. "The thought the process behind it was good. I felt it was the right pitch to throw. I was trying to get a double play, I elevated it a little bit and he hit it out. ... The whole game was a battle, not just the fifth inning. They’re a good team and put together some really good at-bats. They laid off a lot of pitches I thought I threw well, and they hit some pitches I thought I threw well. It’s one of the deals where, it’s tough to say, but you have to tip your hat. Lackey threw the hell out of the ball tonight. We’ll try to come back tomorrow and get them."

Lester got out of the chute well.

After he retired six of the first seven batters he faced, Lester got into a jam in the bottom of the third. The southpaw allowed a leadoff single to the Angels’ Jeff Mathis before Lester retired the next two batters he faced. He then issued a walk to Bobby Abreu. Lester thought he had Hunter struck out, but home-plate umpire Joe West called ball three on what Lester thought was strike three. Hunter eventually drew a walk to the displeasure of Lester, who yelled a few colorful words.

With the bases loaded, the always-fearsome Vladimir Guerrero stepped into the box. Lester struck him out with a 95 MPH fastball. Again, the Sox’ pitcher yelled something as he walked off the mound to the dislike of West, who followed him all the way into the dugout.

In the bottom of the fourth, Lester retired the first two batters he faced and appeared to be out of the inning when shortstop Alex Gonzalez made a tremendous play up the middle. He quickly got to his feet, but his throw was off line, forcing Kevin Youkilis off the bag. The Sox’ first baseman caught the ball and clearly applied the tag on the Angels’ Howie Kendrick before Kendrick reached the bag. But first-base umpire CB Bucknor called the runner safe.

That brought Francona out of the dugout to argue. Fortunately for the Red Sox, Lester struck out Mathis to end the inning.

Anaheim’s Erick Aybar led off the bottom of the fifth with a double down the left-field line and reached third on a sacrifice bunt by Chone Figgins. On the play, Lester fielded the bunt and made a bad throw to Dustin Pedroia, who was covering first. The runner was clearly safe, but Bucknor called Figgins out, saying Pedroia beat him to the bag.

With one out and a runner on third, Abreu walked for the third time in the game before Hunter unleashed fury with one swing of the bat. As the ball landed halfway up the rock wall behind the center-field fence, the stalemate was no more and the Angels had a 3-0 lead.

"I think [Lester] threw the ball good," said Red Sox catcher Victor Martinez. "He left one pitch up in the zone and Torii Hunter put a really good swing on that one. I thought he did a pretty good job mixing all of his pitches, but unfortunately there was one pitch they didn’t miss."

As soon as Hunter put barrel on the ball, he knew it was gone. He flipped his bat and yelled, "That’s what I’m talking about, baby,"

After the Sox failed to score by leaving two runners stranded in the top of the sixth inning, the Angels again got a little help from Bucknor. Kendrick hit a chopper to Sox third baseman Mike Lowell, who fielded the ball but made an errant throw to first base. Youkilis came off the bag to get the ball and clearly made it back for the would-be out, but Bucknor called Kendrick safe.

Again, Francona came flying out of the dugout to argue. Again, the bad call did not hurt the Sox as Lester got out of the inning unscathed.

Lester was finished after six full innings and replaced by reliever Ramon Ramirez, who quickly loaded the bases on a walk, a hit batsman and a single. Francona replaced Ramirez with Takashi Saito.

The Japanese right-hander got Juan Rivera to ground into a 5-2-5 double play. But Saito then allowed an RBI single to Kendry Morales that scored two runs due to a throwing error by left fielder Jason Bay as the Angels gained a 5-0 lead.

"Four singles and three errors won’t win you too many ball games," said Bay. "You tip your hat a little bit, but I think we can do better."

Lackey started the top of the eighth inning and allowed a leadoff single to J.D. Drew. Once Lackey got Red Sox pinch-hitter Casey Kotchman to ground out, Angels manager Mike Scioscia came out to get his starter after 114 pitches (67 for strikes).

"He had great stuff tonight," said Scioscia. "We played good defense and John made pitches. That’s a long way to pitch against that lineup and to get us 22 outs like that was a tremendous effort."

The 45,070 in attendance gave Lackey a standing ovation and he responded to the gesture by tipping his cap.

Earlier in the day, Francona talked about the importance of winning the first game of any playoff series. Gaining the early momentum is important, but not a necessity, according to Boston’s manager.

"What is essential is we play as good as we can and when the game is over understand tomorrow’s game [is just as important]. We need to keep it in perspective. It’s important, but it doesn’t mean it’s over. Somebody’s going to go home tonight in a little better mood."

It was the Angels who went home happy.

jmcdonal@projo.com