"I'm already halfway through my delivery," Beckett said. "I'm not going to stop and possibly hurt myself. [The pitch] could have gone anywhere."

But it didn't, the Angels protested. Although catcher Jason Varitek had set up low and away, the pitch sailed high and tight. And afterward Beckett showed no remorse, charging Abreu rather than apologizing to him.

"People can think what they want to think," the right-hander said. "I've yet to hit somebody on the head and it's not on my list of stuff to accomplish."

"That was as flagrant as anything as I've seen in this game," said Scioscia, who was ejected in the top of the second for continuing to argue from the bench.

"There were some things that happened on that field that were disturbing. The league has to look into it," he added.

"Some words were said that were just outrageous," said Hunter, who rapidly went from peacemaker to protester. "And it wasn't from the Red Sox. I freaking lost it."

Asked if those words were spoken by the umpires since there were only Angels , Red Sox and umpires on the field, Hunter balked.

"I didn't say that," he answered. "It might have been the voices in my head."

When both teams and the umpires eventually got back to playing, the Red Sox jumped to a 2-0 second-inning lead on back-to-back homers by Kevin Youkilis and J.D. Drew.

An inning later, Abreu got his revenge against Beckett, hitting a two-run single that put the Angels ahead to stay.

It wasn't a comfortable lead, though, especially the deeper Boston got into the Angels' bullpen.

In the eighth Scot Shields walked the bases loaded with one out, missing the strike zone on 14 of his first 20 pitches, before getting Mike Lowell to pop up a 2-0 pitch and retiring Jason Varitek on a line drive to center.