ANAHEIM, Calif._As the Angels made their way from the clubhouse and into the dugout before Thursday's game, a cardboard box awaited them atop the bat racks. The box contained what appeared to be the results of a shopping spree at Party City.
This would be the first game of the last series David Ortiz would play in Anaheim. The Angels had the obligatory farewell gift, a portrait of the Boston Red Sox slugger at bat, to be unveiled on the field by Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and longtime coach Alfredo Griffin.
But the Angels wanted to have some fun too. So they asked each player to wear the gag gifts, to don a pair of goofy sunglasses and put a gold-colored chain around his neck, to spoof the Ortiz look.
The game itself ended up stunningly merry for the home team. After David Price shut out the Angels for eight innings, the Angels won in the ninth inning, 2-1, on a throwing error by Red Sox first baseman Hanley Ramirez.
Price worked the first eight innings for Boston, giving up seven hits and one walk. He struck out six.
In the ninth, the Red Sox deployed submariner Brad Ziegler. Trout and Pujols started the inning with singles _ putting the tying run in scoring position and the winning run on base _ but Carlos Perez struck out trying to bunt.
Andrelton Simmons delivered a line single to center field, hit so hard that the Angels had to hold Trout at third. Daniel Nava, pinch-hitting, knocked a ground ball directly to Ramirez, who threw home. Perhaps Ramirez would force Trout at home, or perhaps Trout would beat the throw and the game would be tied.
But Ramirez threw high, and over the head of catcher Sandy Leon. Trout scored, and so did pinch-runner Ji-Man Choi, and the Angels had a stunning victory.
Jered Weaver might have carried an earned-run average above 5.00 into the game, but he gave up no more than one run for the third time in four starts. His ERA this month: 3.57.
The Boston run came in the third inning, on two singles and a sacrifice fly. In the sixth, with two out and a runner on second base, the Angels ordered Weaver to walk Ortiz intentionally. That took him to 104 pitches _ two shy of his season high _ and out of the game.
When Manager Mike Scioscia called for a reliever and came to the mound, Weaver's objections were visible to anyone watching on television.
He and the Angels should not have been losing at that point. The Angels had only themselves to blame, for they bunched three hits and a walk into one inning _ without scoring.
The inning was the fifth, and the Red Sox led, 1-0. Jeffry Marte had singled, Jett Bandy had walked, and Gregorio Petit was at bat. With two strikes on Petit, the 220-pound Marte decided to try for his first major league stolen base, with Price paying him little attention.
Marte still was thrown out at third base. Petit singled, of course, and so did Johnny Giavotella after him, but the slow-footed Bandy had to be held at third. So the Angels left the bases loaded _ no runs, three hits, one walk, one ill-fated baserunning gamble.
The Angels got another scoreless inning from reliever Joe Smith, perhaps the player most likely to be traded by Monday's deadline. In seven appearances since the All-Star break, Smith has not given up a run. He has faced 22 batters, without walking any.
Ortiz really had come a long way. He first played here in 1997, when the ballpark was called Anaheim Stadium. The home team was the Anaheim Angels, and the players wore periwinkle and pinstripes.
