BOSTON The Angels might be ready to open a two-game series with famine and pestilence next at this rate.

They probably feel they've endured all manner of plagues already on this trip. They've seen snow (7 inches in Milwaukee after their series had been relocated from Cleveland to avoid the stuff) and rain (postponing Sunday's game and pushing the start of Monday's game back 2 hours) even in the middle of an offensive drought.

Things only went from bad to worse Monday. In the top of the first inning, their most valuable player, Vladimir Guerrero, had to leave the game after being hit in the right wrist by a 96 mph fastball. In the bottom of the inning, Ervin Santana gave up hits to the first four batters he faced and six runs in the inning on the way to a 7-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox.

That completed a three-game sweep at Fenway Park (where the Angels have lost 15 of their past 20 games) during which the Sox outscored them 25-3. The Angels have now lost four consecutive games and six of their past seven.

California, here they come. The road trip continues in Oakland today.

"This weather is such a drag," Angels centerfielder Gary Matthews said. "I love the atmosphere here. The fans are great. But we can't get out of here soon enough. I need some sunshine. I haven't seen sunshine in a week."

And that was before the game added to their misery.

"It's a long season, man," Angels left fielder Garret Anderson said afterward, trying to put the current skid in perspective. "That's the way it is. I've been in this game a long time. What are we going to do write off the season?

"They (the Red Sox) scored a lot of runs and they pitched well. That's a good team over there. Sometimes you have to tip your cap to them. They took it to us in three games. There's not much you can say about that."

But the Red Sox added injury to insult with Josh Beckett's 0-and-2 fastball to Guerrero in the first inning. Orlando Cabrera had preceded Guerrero with a solo home run (ending a stretch of seven games and 64 innings without an Angel home run) when Beckett decided to come up and in on Guerrero. He immediately left the game. X-rays of Guerrero's hand were negative.

The ball appeared to catch Guerrero flush on the right wrist, but in the clubhouse after the game he pointed more toward the heel of his hand, above the bone.

"Not bad, not broken," Guerrero said in English.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia said Guerrero's status will be re-evaluated today.

"He's OK," Scioscia said. "It looks like there is some soft tissue swelling near the wrist. We'll just go day to day with it.

"With any player, it's scary. That ball hit him as firm as you can be hit. Hopefully it'll be something that won't keep him out of the lineup."

Home-plate umpire Rick Reed immediately warned both benches about retaliating.

"Your horse gets hit, you hate to be in a situation where you can't throw inside," Matthews said. "Hey, one of our big boys gets hit and somebody over there has gotta go down. I'm not saying you throw at a guy's head, but that's just the way this game is played."

Santana had enough to worry about.

He changed his pregame warmup routine slightly to try to address his poor performance on the road. It didn't help. He is now 9-13 with a 6.78 ERA after giving up those six runs in the first inning and a home run by David Ortiz in the fourth that looked like it might hit a Kenyan runner in the back of the head as the Boston Marathon ran past the stadium.

"It's one of those things where you say to yourself there are going to be ups and downs," Matthews said. "At some point, you know it's going to turn around. We're not going to play like this forever."