Wanted: Divine intervention

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Meet the Los Angeles Angels. Twenty-five players, 25 couches.

Really. These guys don't need Doc Halladay, Dock Ellis, Doc Medich, Doc Rivers, or Dr. J. They need Dr. Melfi or Dr. Phil. They need Lucy of "Peanuts" to set up a booth in the third base dugout under a sign that reads, "Psychiatric Help - 5 cents."

It's supposed to be different for the Halos this year. No more will they be bullied or intimidated by the Blue Meanies from Boston. This time, the Angels are coming into the playoffs hot and healthy - a 100-win, wire-to-wire powerhouse with a great manager and new confidence.

You know all the numbers. The Angels beat the Red Sox eight times in nine games this season. They're nothing like the shell of a team Boston decimated in the playoffs in 2007. These Angels have Mark Teixeira, Torii Hunter, and a healthy Gary Matthews. Vlad Guerrero doesn't have a sore shoulder this year and Garret Anderson doesn't have conjunctivitis. The Angels have home-field advantage. Past playoff failures against Boston mean nothing.

Well, maybe that's a pile of baloney. Maybe the Angels still don't believe they can beat the Red Sox in a big game. That's certainly the way it looked Wednesday night/yesterday morning when the Sox embarrassed the American League West champs, 4-1, in Game 1 of this best-of-five bakeoff.

That's 10 straight Red Sox playoff wins over the team from the Big A. The only other time one team so dominated another was when the Oakland A's beat the Red Sox in 10 straight postseason games from 1988-2003. It's downright demoralizing.

Clearly, these Angels don't need to be answering for the 1986 Gene Mauch team that started the streak by blowing a 3-1 series lead. But several Sons of Mike Scioscia have been around long enough to remember the Sox' sweep of Anaheim in 2004. Most of them were around last fall when Boston outscored Los Angeles, 19-4, in three easy games.

Wednesday's Game 1 felt like a continuation of last year's rout. The Red Sox looked deep, confident, smart, and talented. The Angels looked nervous, anxious, dumb, and afraid.

The Angels let Jon Lester off the hook a couple of times in the early innings. Guerrero got himself out with a first-pitch swing with a couple of men aboard and one out. Howie Kendrick stranded five base runners in the first three innings.

The Angels hit nine singles. They have not hit a postseason home run in their last four games against Boston. Leadoff man Chone Figgins (0 for 5, three strikeouts) didn't try to get a bunt down even though poor Mike Lowell looks positively calcified at third base.

John Lackey, who should know better, threw Jason Bay a cookie fastball on an 0-and-1 count in the sixth inning. Lackey had fanned Bay a couple of times, making the Sox outfielder look bad on curveballs. Then he threw the only pitch Bay could hit.

Sounding frustrated with his own hitters, Lackey said, "We've got to find a way to score some runs. It's pretty frustrating when one pitch can lose the game for you . . . You can't say it's one run and move on, because these things can end real quick. We have to play with a sense of urgency and get it going."

Matthews butchered a fly ball to right for a three-base error. Vladi capped off a horrible night with a boneheaded base-running blunder in the eighth. He was easily gunned down on a great throw by Kevin Youkilis, killing the Angels' last chance.

Catcher Mike Napoli said he didn't know anything about the streak until he saw it on ESPN. The Angels insist there's no connection, no carryover.

"We have to forget about what happened yesterday," said the catcher.

"There's no mystique about it," said Scioscia. "You've got to play good baseball."

"When I was with the Minnesota Twins, we kind of had this same thing with the Yankees," said Hunter. "So I just feel a lot of guys have to have amnesia. You've got to let that go and get the dog in you. If you ain't got that dog in you, you're not ready. I'm trying to put that in 'em. Get it going. And hopefully that works out Friday."

This is the way ballplayers and managers are supposed to talk. But there's too much smoke here in Orange County. The Angels have to be doubting themselves right now. And it's not going to change until they win a playoff game against the Red Sox.

The margins only get tougher. Tonight they face a man who did not lose on the road in 2008. Then they travel to Boston to face Josh Beckett, knowing that Lester is there to smother them in Game 4 at Fenway. If it goes that far.

"This doesn't feel like an elimination game, but it does put the pressure on," said Hunter. "You always want to win the first game and put the pressure on the other team. You don't want to go to Boston 0-2. You don't. So we've got to do what we've got to do Friday."

And for the record, there are only two couches in the Angels' clubhouse.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com.