Trailing 5-1 in the 4th inning, the casual fan would think the Boston Red Sox would have no chance of coming back against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. What the casual fan doesn’t know is that this Red Sox team has been coming back in games all season.

And tonight was no different as the 1-2 punch of Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia plus a 2-run homer by Kevin Youkilis helped the Red Sox overcome that deficit and beat the Angels 7-6 sending the 37,982 fans at the Fens home with a smile. The win was the 6th straight for the Sox.

Ellsbury had 3 hits, including the first multi-homer game of his career and a bunt single with 2 RBIs. Pedroia was for 4-for-5 with a RBI and a career-high 3 doubles, including a double knocking in the game winner. Youk only had 1 hit in the game but his homer was huge as it tied the game at 5. Julio Lugo continues to swing a hot stick as he had another 2 hits in the game while Manny Ramirez had 2 hits as well.

After finding out he was starting at 4 PM today with Josh Beckett being scratched with sore neck, David Pauley came up from Pawtucket to make just his 4th major league start. It wasn’t a pretty one as he ran into some trouble in the 3rd and 4th innings. He ended up working 4 1/3 innings, giving up 7 hits, 5 runs and 2 walks while striking out 3. Julian Tavarez worked 1 2/3 innings allowing 2 hits and a walk. Hideki Okajima worked 1 2/3 innings, giving up 2 hits and 1 run. Mike Timlin threw just 4 pitches to get his 2nd win of the year and Jonathan Papelbon finished the game off with his 8th save of the season.

Ellsbury’s first homer of the game leading off the bottom of the 1st got the Red Sox out in front 1-0. Angels starter Jed Weaver then gave up a double to Pedroia but he was retired when Big Papi hit into a fielder’s choice. Pedroia had been running on contact on a ball hit to the shortstop. Manny followed that with a single. Weaver then got Youk to fly out and J.D. Drew to ground out to end the 1st.

Pauley had an easy time of it in the 1st and 2nd innings as he kept his sinker down in the zone. However, he ran into some trouble in the 3rd inning.

Macier Izturis led off the inning with a double and scored on a Jeff Mathis single to tie the game at 1. Erick Aybar followed that with a ground rule double. Chone Figgins worked a walk to load up the bases. Pauley rebounded to get Gary Matthews and Vlad Guerrero to pop out before Garrett Anderson drove in two with a single to put the Halos up 3-1. Torii Hunter flew to left for the third out.

Weaver had an easy time of it in the home half of the third. He worked a perfect 1-2-3 inning striking out Pedroia, Big Papi and Manny.

More troubles for Pauley in the 4th. After Casey Kotchman flew out, Izturis worked a walk and stole second. He came around to score when Mathis put a hanging sinker over the Green Monster to put the Angels up 5-1. Aybar followed that with his a double, one of 3 on the night for him. Pauley bounced back though from his struggles to strike out Figgins and got Matthews to line out.

As I said above, the one great thing about this team right now is that you can never count them out of the game as they began to chip away at the lead.

Youk led off the 4th by flying out. Drew then laced a single followed by a Sean Casey fly out. Kevin Cash singled and Lugo followed it with an RBI single to cut the lead to 3 runs.

Weaver’s last inning was the 5th and it wasn’t a pretty one for him.

Pedroia led off with a double and came around to score on a Big Papi single. Manny followed that with a line drive to right that would have been a home run but a great catch by Vlad kept the score at 5-3. Youk made it 5-5 when he took a Weaver offering and put it in the Monster seats for a 2-run homer.

With 2 outs in the 6th inning, Ellsbury hit his second homer of the game, this one off Angels reliever Darren O’Day to put the Sox up again at 6-5.

The Angels threatened in the 7th inning off of Julian Tavarez, who had taken over for Pauley. Figgins led off with a single and Matthews followed that with a single moving Figgins up 90 feet. Terry Francona then went to his bullpen for Hideki Okajima. Oki got Vlad to fly out for the first out of the inning. With Anderson at the plate, Cash threw down to second to try and pick off Figgins but his throw went into the outfield allowing both Figgins and Matthews to move up a base. Okajima, who always seems relaxed on the mound, came back to get Anderson to pop out and finished the inning off with a strikeout of Hunter.

In the 8th with Okajima on the hill still, Kotchman hit a lead-off homer just over the out-stretched glove of Drew to tie it up at 6.

With one out in the bottom of the 8th, Ellsbury reached on a perfectly executed bunt off of Darren Oliver. The Halos went to there bullpen and brought in Scott Shields to face Pedroia. He was able to get around on one and drive it down the left field line for a double and the game winning run as Ellsbury scored from first base.

Papelbon came out firing cheddar in the 9th inning as he struck out the first two batters of the inning in Matthews and Guerrero, consistently hitting 98 MPH and once touching triple digits. He got Anderson to fly out for the final out of the game.

After the game, the Red Sox announced they had sent Pauley back to Pawtucket. They will wait until tomorrow to make a corresponding roster move so they can check on the health of Jason Varitek who not at the ballpark for the 2nd straight day due to the flu. If he’s not healthy, a catcher will be called up. If not, I think the likely candidate to be called up is Craig Hansen, who’s been lights out at Pawtucket.

Notes and Musings:

Boxscore

Josh Beckett will most likely make his next start on Sunday against the Rays as he was previously scheduled to.

Manny Delcarmen was also sent home with the flu tonight.

Jerry Remy returned to NESN booth after missing yesterday’s game with back issues.

Tonight was Terry Francona’s 49th birthday. He is now 3-4 in games played on his birthday.

Lugo extended his hitting streak to 8 games.

The Red Sox have scored 5 or more runs in each of their last 9 games, their longest such streak since a 10-game run from June 17-28, 2006.

Boston has won the season’s series at Fenway Park versus Los Angeles in 4 of the last 5 years.

The Red Sox also lead the A.L. with a .313 batting average at home, 3rd highest in the majors.

Ellsbury is 17-for-17 in steal attempts in his major league career, the longest string of successful thefts to start an ML of any Red Sox player ever.

Bryan Corey was re-signed by the Red Sox today to a Triple-A contract.