BYRD'S WEAK SPOT COSTLY BAD PITCH TO RENTERIA HELPS RED SOX DEFEAT ANGELS BOSTON 5, ANGELS 1.

Byline: Keven Chavez Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - Paul Byrd's pitches danced and crawled and avoided the powerful lumber of the Boston Red Sox for almost all of Sunday's game at Angel Stadium.

After seven nearly flawless shutout innings, the Angels' starter was on his way to another gem. Then Byrd threw one flawed pitch and all the work was undone.

Boston shortstop Edgar Renteria pounced on a high fastball from Byrd in the eighth inning and hit a three-run home run, more than enough to lead the Red Sox to a 5-1 victory in front of 44,022 fans.

``I felt in control, I felt good, I didn't feel tired,'' said Byrd, ``but I missed a few locations and, like that, it's 3-0.''

Byrd (9-8) mesmerized Boston's lineup, retiring 15 consecutive batters before Jason Varitek's single in the seventh inning, but the game remained scoreless entering the eighth.

Boston's Bill Mueller and Tony Graffanino led off the inning with singles, but a failed sacrifice-bunt attempt and a groundout gave Byrd two outs and the opportunity to escape unscathed. Instead, Renteria hit a flyball that sailed just beyond the outstretched glove of Angels left fielder Juan Rivera and into the Angels' bullpen - where reliever Brendan Donnelly was warmed up and ready to enter the game - for a 3-0 Red Sox lead.

``Paul still had good life on the ball, still had good stuff,'' Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. ``He just made a couple of mistakes in that one at-bat to Edgar and he paid the price.''

Said Byrd: ``I shoulder the loss, I needed to be better. If I throw a slider on the outside corner or a fastball inside and he hits it, you tip your cap to him. But to throw a fastball down the middle, it's frustrating.''

Any possible second-guessing for leaving Byrd in the game was likely eliminated two batters later when Manny Ramirez blistered a pitch from Donnelly over the right-center field wall for his 33rd home run of the season, a two-run shot that gave the Red Sox a comfortable 5-0 lead.

The Angels' offense had no answer for Boston rookie pitcher Jonathan Papelbon, who was making just his third career start. Papelbon pitched 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball, allowing just one Angels runner to reach third base, before being lifted in the sixth inning with two runners on base.

Lefty specialist Mike Myers got Angels second baseman Adam Kennedy to pop out to end the sixth-inning threat, then Mike Timlin (5-2) pitched two shutout innings to earn the win.

It was the third time in Byrd's past six starts that he has failed to receive a single run of support.

``Byrdie pitched a great game, we just couldn't scratch any runs across,'' said Angels center fielder Steve Finley, who snapped out of a 0-for-15 skid with two hits, including an RBI double off Boston reliever Curt Schilling in the ninth inning.

The Angels remained 2 1/2 games ahead in the AL West over the Oakland Athletics, who lost a second consecutive game to the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.

Keven Chavez, [phone]

keven.chavez(at)sgvn.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Foul Ending

Byrd cruises into eighth, where he's rocked and Angels settle for split with Boston

(2) The Angels' Paul Byrd pitched shutout ball for the first 7 2/3 innings on Sunday, but allowed four runs in the eighth inning.

Keith Birmingham/Staff Photographer

Box:

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