ANAHEIM, Calif. - Brilliant as ever in the postseason, Curt Schilling helped give the Boston Red Sox some time off.

The way they're playing, maybe that's the last thing they need.

Schilling worked seven masterful innings, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez homered, and the Red Sox routed the Los Angeles Angels 9-1 Sunday to complete a three-game sweep of their first-round AL playoff series.

The Red Sox open the AL championship series at Fenway Park on Friday night against either the Cleveland Indians or New York Yankees. The Indians went for a sweep Sunday night at Yankee Stadium.

Schilling isn't the power pitcher he once was, but he handled the Angels with relative ease. Even when the Angels loaded the bases early, he escaped.

“His style has changed, but the results in the postseason remain the same. That's a real tribute to him,” Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said. “That's what makes him special.”

Schilling raised his postseason record to 9-2 in 16 career starts while lowering his ERA to 1.93, having allowed only 25 earned runs in 116 1-3 innings.

“This is not a solo thing. You've got to have a team to make it work. That performance today was as much about John Farrell and Jason Varitek as it was about anything, as far as I'm concerned, and as far as my results,” Schilling said, referring to Boston's pitching coach and catcher, respectively.

“It's been an incredibly arduous and long road and a process that's had its peaks and valleys, but John has stuck with me and worked as hard as I've ever had a pitching coach work to get me to where I need to be,” Schilling said. “And Jason was flawless today.”

The Red Sox joined the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies in sweeping a first-round series this October - this is the first time since the current format began in 1995 that it's happened.

Vladimir Guerrero and his Los Angeles teammates hit .192 as a team and scored a mere four runs in three games.

“Pitching is everything, and our guys were pitching,” Ramirez said. “In the playoffs, you got to have pitching. Schilling's the man. He's got a lot of spirit, he knows what he's doing out there and he came through for us today.”

The Angels have lost nine straight playoff games to the Red Sox.

Red Sox 9

Angels 1

BOSTON LOS ANGELES

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Pedroia 2b 4 1 1 1 Figgins cf 4 0 1 0

Yukilis 1b 4 0 1 1 OCbera ss 4 0 2 0

DOrtiz dh 3 2 2 1 VGrero rf 3 0 0 0

Hinske dh 1 0 0 0 GAndsn lf 1 0 0 0

MRmrz lf 2 1 1 1 Willits lf 2 0 0 0

Ellsbry lf 1 1 0 0 Morles 1b 4 0 0 0

Lowell 3b 4 1 2 1 Izturis 3b 4 1 3 0

JDrew rf 4 1 0 1 Kndrck 2b 3 0 0 1

Varitek c 4 1 1 1 JRivra dh 3 0 1 0

Crisp cf 4 0 1 2 Hyns ph 1 0 0 0

JLugo ss 3 1 1 0 Napoli c 3 0 1 0

Quinlan ph 1 0 0 0

Totals 34 9 10 9 33 1 8 1

Boston 000 200 070--9

Los Angeles 000 000 001--1

DP--Boston 1, Los Angeles 3. LOB--Boston 4, Los Angeles 8. 2B--Pedroia (2), Lowell 2 (2), Varitek (1), Figgins (2), Izturis 2 (2). HR--DOrtiz (2), MRamirez (2). SB--JLugo (1). SF--Youkilis, Kendrick.

IP H R ER BB SO

Boston

Schilling W,1-0 7 6 0 0 1 4

Okajima 1 1 0 0 1 0

Gagne 1 1 1 1 0 1

Los Angeles

JdWeaver L,0-1 5 4 2 2 3 5

Shields 2 0 1 1 1 3

Speier 1-3 3 4 4 1 0

Oliver 2-3 2 2 2 0 0

Moseley 1 1 0 0 0 1

JdWeaver pitched to 1 batter in the 6th, Shields pitched to 1 batter in the 8th.

WP--Gagne.

Umpires--Home, Brian Runge; First, Ted Barrett; Second, Tim Tschida; Third, C.B. Bucknor; Left, Gary Darling; Right, Dan Iassogna.

T--3:29. A--45,262 (45,257).