anaheim, calif. Jason Bay is the parted hair to Manny Ramirez’s dreadlocks. He is the guy your mother never warned you about.
Upon arriving in Boston, he told reporters that he wore a Red Sox onesie as a baby, and decorated his room with Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski posters.
Heck, for all he knows, they might still be up at his parents’ house. It’s not hard to imagine Canadian kids plastering their walls or screensavers with Bay pictures. The man who was traded for Manny couldn’t have made a better first impression on the playoffs if he showed up in a tuxedo carrying a dozen roses.
He crushed a sinker from John Lackey in the sixth inning Wednesday night, his two-run homer in the Red Sox’s 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels reminding the baseball world the road to a world championship still goes through Boston.
Home-field advantage lost, the Angels, for all intents and purposes, face a must-win game Friday in the American League Division Series.
This was supposed to be the night the Angels made a statement, took advantage of a Red Sox weakness. Boston didn’t have Josh Beckett available. He has become this generation’s Mr. October, as good as any playoff pitcher since steering the Florida Marlins to a title in 2003. He has been pushed back to Game 3 because of a strained oblique.
Even without their ace, the Red Sox weren’t pushed around. Jon Lester, last seen in the playoffs clinching the World Series at Coors Field, worked seven efficient innings. He allowed just one unearned run in seven innings on 117 pitches. Had shortstop Jed Lowrie not muffed a routine groundball, Torii Hunter never would have come up to single home Garrett Anderson.
Still, the Red Sox were staring directly at a loss when the sixth inning rolled around. They were 0-for-11 with runners on base as Bay dug in against Lackey.
Lackey, who pitches with attitude and force, made a rare mistake, leaving a running two-seam fastball out over the plate. The slugger got his arms extended and enjoyed a brief Baywatch. He flipped the bat and glanced as the ball disappeared into the sea of red over the left-field fence.
Boston protected the one-run lead through the philanthropic baserunning of Vlad-imir Guerrero. A promising eighth-inning rally turned ugly when Guerrero lost his mind for a moment.
With one out, Hunter blooped a single off first baseman Kevin Youkilis’ glove. Youkilis, running toward right field, quickly retrieved the ball as Guerrero hesitated to see if it was caught before inexplicably racing toward third.
Off line, Youkilis’ throw still nailed Guerrero by 5 feet.
That left the stage to Jonathan Papelbon, who stepped on the Angels’ chest in the ninth.
