Angels’ Ninth Symphony

BOSTON —  The home team proudly features a collection of guys everyone knows by one name--Pedro, Nomar and Manny.

The visiting team proudly features a collection of guys known only to friends, family and obsessed fantasy league players.

There is a team approaching panic mode here, and it is not the Angels.

The Boston Red Sox held back the great Pedro Martinez so he could pitch against the Angels. They milked 17-game winner Derek Lowe for a season-high 121 pitches Sunday in a futile effort to beat the Angels.

But the Angels produced perhaps their most delightful inning of the season, with a pinch-runner and three pinch-hitters sparking a five-run rally in the ninth inning, to earn an 8-3 victory and ensure that Boston would gain no ground on them during this series.

The Angels remained percentage points ahead of the Seattle Mariners in the American League wild-card race. The Red Sox already have played their aces in Martinez and Lowe, and they would tumble 4 1/2 games behind the Angels if they lose the series finale tonight.

“It’s a different feel than it was at the beginning of the year,” the Angels’ Benji Gil said. “Other teams are realizing we’re a team they have to contend with.”

The Red Sox, the team with the $110-million payroll and the one that inflated its budget to acquire Cliff Floyd and Bobby Howry at the trading deadline, started Lowe on Sunday. The Angels, the team with the $60-million payroll and a sharp eye on the waiver wire, started Mickey Callaway, discarded by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The Angels used every position player. The heroes included Gil, who couldn’t get a major league call-up during two years in the Florida Marlin organization, independent league refugee Shawn Wooten and Chone Figgins, whose career with the Colorado Rockies stalled at double A.

Backup outfielders Orlando Palmeiro and Alex Ochoa, sharing the No. 3 spot Sunday in the absence of injured star Tim Salmon, combined to drive in four runs. The relievers wore No. 53 and No. 60.

Across the country, fans scour the box scores and scratch their heads. These guys--whoever they are--are spooking the Red Sox?

“It doesn’t matter what the rest of the country thinks,” center fielder Darin Erstad said.

With the score tied, 3-3, after eight innings and Boston closer Ugueth Urbina ready, Red Sox Manager Grady Little gambled that he could squeeze another inning out of Lowe, who already had given up a season-high 11 hits. By that time, with the score tied after eight, a save situation was no longer possible for Urbina, but Little left him in the bullpen anyway.

Bad call. Meanwhile, every call Angel Manager Mike Scioscia made was golden.

After Scott Spiezio singled to start the ninth, Scioscia tapped Figgins for his major league debut, as a pinch-runner. Just the other day, Scioscia had asked General Manager Bill Stoneman for a pinch-runner, and so the Angels promoted Figgins from triple A.

After Adam Kennedy struck out, Wooten batted for Jose Molina. Little called for two pitchouts; Scioscia held Figgins both times. Wooten then singled to left field, and Figgins sped from first to third.

David Eckstein followed, and Little did not pitch out. Another bad call, since Scioscia called for the squeeze on the first pitch. Eckstein bunted back to Lowe, but Figgins was a blur as he scored what turned out to be the deciding run.

“I didn’t have to put down a perfect bunt,” Eckstein said, “because he just flies.”

Lowe was done, but Scioscia was not. Ochoa pinch-hit and singled home two runs. Gil pinch-hit and tripled home two more.

And, with a five-run lead, Scioscia left closer Troy Percival in the bullpen and allowed No. 60--Scott Schoeneweis--to finish the victory, and to receive the congratulatory handshakes that follow.

“I didn’t really know what to do,” he said. “I didn’t know who to high-five first.”