updated 6:51 p.m. ET Oct. 7, 2007

ANAHEIM, Calif. - With a bin full of ice water and a mischievous grin, Manny Ramirez found David Ortiz in the chaos of a champagne celebration and picked out the next target to be soaked.

Sneaking up from behind, Ramirez doused general manager Theo Epstein.

He was immediately forgiven.

“It’s OK,” Epstein said, squeezing the water from his hair, “only because you didn’t make an out the whole series.”

Ortiz and Ramirez are working together again, and just at the right time for the Red Sox. The two sluggers hit back-to-back homers to break a scoreless tie, and Boston went on to beat the Los Angeles Angels 9-1 on Sunday to sweep their first-round AL playoff series.

“Hopefully, we’re going to see it for three more weeks,” third baseman Mike Lowell said. “Those two guys are special. We lean on them, and they come through for us.”

The Angels walked Ortiz four times in Game 2 on Friday night, only to see Ramirez win it on a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth. Unable to safely pitch around Ortiz in the finale, the Angels challenged him — and paid for it.

Ortiz hit the second pitch from Jered Weaver over the right-field fence to give Boston a 1-0 lead. Next came the cleanup hitter, who slammed a 3-2 pitch to the edge of the center-field rocks, pausing and posing as it bounced around.

“There’s as good a 1-2 punch as there is in baseball,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.

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But it was the first time this season that the two Red Sox sluggers hit consecutive homers.

“We’ll take it now,” Epstein said. “It’s the most important time of the year to have them both going hot at the same time. The complexion of our club really changes when you can’t pitch around either one of them.”

That was the Angels’ problem, just like it was in 2004, when Ortiz hit a 10th-inning homer to eliminate them from the AL playoffs and added two more game-winning hits against the Yankees. Ramirez was the MVP of the World Series that year as Boston ended its 86-year championship drought.

“I know we’re thrilled that we run them out there because they’re dangerous,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “David and Manny, back-to-back, take beautiful swings. And it gives us the cushion, and (Curt) Schilling made it hold up.”

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Ortiz’s homer was his second of the series and the ninth of his postseason career, a Red Sox franchise record. Ramirez’s shot was his second of this postseason and his 22nd career playoff homer, tying Bernie Williams for the all-time record.

“Those are our two big bats,” center fielder Coco Crisp said. “Papi said he was going to hit a home run today, and he came through. Then Manny hit a moon rocket into the wind.”

Ramirez has struggled through injuries this year to the worst full-season numbers of his career: hitting 20 homers and 88 RBIs to go with a .296 average — far from the production that made him a $20 million man.

Ortiz played through knee and shoulder injuries that cut into his power numbers — 35 homers and 117 RBIs — though he was fifth in league in hitting and he led the AL in on-base percentage by a wide margin.

It wasn’t until Ramirez returned from a month off with a strained side muscle that the two began to click together. Ramirez hit .375 with four RBIs against the Angels, and Ortiz went 5-for-7 with six walks, for an on-base percentage of .846.

“Pick your poison,” Schilling said. “When they’re both on, I don’t know if there is a way to get both of them out.”

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