Red Sox sweep Angels on 10th-inning HR

BOSTON -- This self-proclaimed band of idiots is going to play for the pennant.

David Ortiz homered in the 10th inning to send the Boston Red Sox into their second consecutive AL championship series, completing a three-game sweep of the Anaheim Angels with an 8-6 victory Friday.

Ortiz also had a pair of doubles as Boston rode starter Bronson Arroyo to a five-run lead after six innings. But Vladimir Guerrero hit a grand slam to tie it 6-all in the seventh and send the game to extra innings.

Derek Lowe, bounced from the rotation after a horrible stretch run, got out of a first-and-third jam in the top of the 10th and earned the win. Losing pitcher Francisco Rodriguez gave up a leadoff single to Johnny Damon in the bottom half; two outs later, Angels manager Mike Scioscia brought in Game 1 starter Jarrod Washburn for the lefty-lefty matchup against Ortiz.

Ortiz hit the first pitch over the Green Monster to send the Fenway Park crowd -- so quiet since Guerrero's homer -- into pandemonium.

"I just (didn't) feel like going back to California," he said.

With the sweep, the Red Sox have four days to rest for the AL championship series that starts Tuesday. Their opponent will be either the archrival New York Yankees or the Minnesota Twins; they were tied one game apiece as the series moved to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday night.

"We want to get to the World Series, whichever way we have to," Arroyo said.

Last year's Red Sox used the theme "Cowboy Up" in the regular season, before they went belly up in the playoffs against the Yankees. Center fielder Johnny Damon declared this week that they were down on "Cowboy Up" and instead were just "idiots" with bad hair and dirty uniforms who were out for fun on the field.

Manny Ramirez and first baseman Kevin Millar took a victory lap in the outfield after the game, spraying champagne on fans and hugging in the outfield.

"It's like a big frat house," Damon said during the postgame celebration. "We have a lot of fun. We enjoy each other."

Ortiz, Boston's happy-go-lucky MVP candidate -- one of two, with Ramirez, actually -- could be chapter chairman. He doubled and scored when Boston took a 2-0 lead in the third, then doubled in a run in the fourth when Boston made it 5-1.

It was 6-1 in the seventh before Mike Timlin walked Darin Erstad with the bases loaded. Guerrero, also a leading MVP candidate after propelling Anaheim to the AL West title, tied the game with a dramatic shot to right-center.

Rodriguez pitched two scoreless innings and struck out Ramirez for the second out in the 10th, but Scioscia went with Washburn, who allowed seven runs in 3 1-3 innings to take the loss in the series opener.

He was making his first relief appearance since 1999.

"Frankie was at a high pitch count. I think he was getting tired," Scioscia said. "With a young arm like Frankie's I think you want to err on the side of caution."

Anaheim, which has lost seven consecutive games to Boston, failed to make a serious run at repeating its World Series title of 2002 despite a free-agent spending spree that brought Guerrero, Bartolo Colon, Kelvim Escobar and Jose Guillen.

The Angels will get no sympathy from Boston, which has been hoping to repeat its magical year of 1918 ever since Babe Ruth was shipped south to the Yankees.

Should the Yankees advance, it would give the Red Sox a chance for revenge against the team that has won 26 World Series since Boston last won it all. The Yankees knocked the Red Sox out of the ALCS last year when Pedro Martinez couldn't hold a three-run lead in the eighth inning of Game 7 and Aaron Boone homered in the 11th to send New York to the World Series.

Either the Yankees or Twins will have to face co-aces Schilling and Martinez in Games 1 and 2 of the ALCS. But maybe they should worry about Arroyo.

The 27-year-old Pittsburgh castoff pitched six innings of three-hit ball and was given a thunderous ovation from the sold-out crowd at Fenway Park when he left after walking the leadoff batter with a 6-1 lead in the seventh.

The Red Sox took a 2-0 lead in the third when Mark Bellhorn drew a leadoff walk and, one out later, Ortiz hit one high off the Green Monster to put runners on second and third. Trot Nixon singled to drive in one run, then Ortiz scored on Kevin Millar's groundout.

Troy Glaus homered in the fourth to make it 2-1 -- his second homer of the series.

But the Red Sox came back with three in the fourth when Bill Mueller reached on an error by second baseman Chone Figgins, went to second on Damon's single and third when Bellhorn walked. Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly to score Mueller, and Ortiz followed with a line drive that right fielder Guerrero couldn't reach; it went all the way to the bullpen wall for a double.

Nixon was walked intentionally to load the bases again, and shortstop David Eckstein booted Millar's grounder for an error that allowed another run to score. Boston made it 6-1 in the fifth on Ramirez's RBI single.

Notes: It was only the second playoff sweep for the Red Sox. They also beat Oakland in 1975 to reach the World Series; Boston lost in seven games to the Cincinnati Reds. The Red Sox last clinched a playoff series at home in 1986, when they finished off the Angels to advance to the World Series; Boston lost to the New York Mets in seven games. ... The Angels hadn't been swept in a playoff series before, but it was the third time they lost three straight. Milwaukee won three in a row after falling behind 2-0 in the 1982 ALCS, and the Red Sox won three straight after falling behind 3-1 in the '86 ALCS. ... Timlin had not allowed an earned run in the postseason since 2000, a span of 12 1-3 innings.