ANAHEIM, CALIF. – Curt Schilling worked seven masterful innings, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez homered, and the Boston Red Sox routed the Los Angeles Angels 9-1 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep of their first-round AL playoff series.
The Red Sox open the AL Championship Series at Fenway Park on Friday night against the Cleveland Indians or New York Yankees.
Schilling isn’t the power pitcher he once was, but he handled the Angels with relative ease. Even when the Angels loaded the bases early, he escaped.
“His style has changed, but the results in the postseason remain the same. That’s a real tribute to him,” Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said. “That’s what makes him special.”
Schilling raised his postseason record to 9-2 in 16 career starts while lowering his ERA to 1.93, having allowed only 25 earned runs in 116 1/3 innings.
“This is not a solo thing,” Schilling said. “You’ve got to have a team to make it work.”
The Red Sox joined the Arizona Diamondbacks and Rockies in sweeping a first-round series this October – this is the first time since the current format began in 1995 that it’s happened.
Vladimir Guerrero and his Los Angeles teammates hit .192 as a team and scored a mere four runs in three games.
“Pitching is everything, and our guys were pitching,” Ramirez said. “In the playoffs, you got to have pitching. Schilling’s the man.”
The Angels have lost nine straight playoff games to the Red Sox and seven straight postseason games overall.
Boston beat the Angels in the last three games of the 1986 ALCS and swept them in the first round of the 2004 playoffs.
Pitching for the first time in 12 days, Schilling scattered six hits while walking one, striking out four and throwing 100 pitches – 76 for strikes.
He was at his best in his final inning of work.
With the Red Sox leading just 2-0, Maicer Izturis doubled to start the Los Angeles seventh, but Howie Kendrick grounded to second, Juan Rivera popped to first and Mike Napoli struck out to end the inning.
The Angels broke the shutout in the ninth against Eric Gagne.
Izturis doubled and scored on Kendrick’s sacrifice fly.
