Ramirez had just 20 homers and 88 RBIs this season — his lowest totals since he played half-time in 1994 — as he struggled with injuries. He missed almost a month at the end of the season, but he came back for the last week and went 7-for-18.

“I haven’t been right all year,” Ramirez said in his first interview of the season. “When you don’t feel good and you still get hits, that’s how you know you’re a bad man.”

Los Angeles will return home and hope to avoid a sweep.

Already without regular center fielder Gary Matthews Jr. for the series, the Angels took right fielder Vladimir Guerrero out in the eighth inning with a bruise on his left shoulder where he was hit by a pitch in the seventh. Left fielder Garret Anderson is playing with a swollen right eye from conjunctivitis.

“You try to stay as short in focus as you can in a series, bat-to-bat, and you try to scratch and claw your way back into a series,” Scioscia said. “It can be done. It can turn in a hurry.”

The Red Sox staked Matsuzaka to a 2-0 lead in the first, but he gave it away in the second even as the crowd seemed more concerned about how the rival Yankees were faring in Cleveland.

The fans cheered the when the Indians beat New York, but there was trouble at home.

Matsuzaka gave up RBI doubles on consecutive pitches to allow Los Angeles to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. The Boston fans cheered again when the New York loss was posted on the Green Monster scoreboard, and again when the game-winning run was shown in centerfield.

They should have been more concerned about what was going on in front of them.

Making his first appearance in the American playoffs, Matsuzaka allowed three runs on seven hits and three walks, striking out three in 4 2-3 innings.

Notes: 2B Pedroia grimaced in pain, clutching his shoulder after diving for a ground ball in the second inning, but he stayed in the game. ... A hard line foul by Casey Kotchman in the fifth hit trainer Rick Smith sitting in the Angels dugout, but he was OK. ... The attendance of 37,706 was the largest at Fenway Park since World War II, and the largest ever for a postseason game at the ballpark. ... Ortiz walked four times in the game, setting a record for the first round of the playoffs. He was intentionally walked in the playoffs for the sixth time in his career, also a record. ... The Angels recorded an 8-3-4 double play in the sixth when Coco Crisp missed second base on his way back to first after Lugo’s fly ball. ... Howie Kendrick was the second player in AL division series history to steal two bases in an inning, the eighth.

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