Santana, who threw a shutout against the White Sox in his second major league start this spring, tamed the Red Sox on five hits in 7 2/3 innings, while the aggressive Angels exploited two Boston errors and a wild pitch while running their way to a couple more runs in assuring themselves no worse than a split of this four-game series.
Center fielder Johnny Damon kicked away Darin Erstad's run-scoring single in the third, allowing a second run to score in the inning, and Edgar Renteria's low throw on Erstad's seventh-inning ground ball pulled Kevin Millar off the bag and indirectly led to another run when the Angels scored twice more against four Sox pitchers in the inning.
The error was Renteria's 23d of the season, most by any big league shortstop this season.
''We've gone through situations where we've made errors and found ways to win," Sox manager Terry Francona said, ''but they certainly make it more difficult to do. The way their guy was throwing, there was no margin for error."
The score was 4-0 when Santana left the game in the eighth after loading the bases on singles by Millar, Bill Mueller, and Damon. Scot Shields, beaten by the Sox the night before in a 4-3, 10-inning game, entered and gave up a two-run single to Renteria, but David Ortiz went down swinging to end the inning.
The Sox brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth after Jason Varitek's one-out single, but Francisco Rodriguez recorded his 28th save by retiring pinch hitter John Olerud on a fly ball and Mueller on a tapper to second.
Santana, asked if he had displayed his best stuff of the season -- he hit 96 miles per hour on the radar gun -- responded, ''Average."
But while the Sox gave Santana credit for silencing them, Ortiz reserved his praise for Shields.
''It was a great pitch," Ortiz said of the breaking ball Shields threw past him for a third strike.
''I saw him pitch [Friday] night and he didn't use a breaking ball. He picked a good time to use it today."
