BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Red Sox brushed aside the 100-win Angels in four games, dismissing their best-in-baseball regular season as last month’s news.

When it turns to October, no one dominates like Boston.

Moments after the Angels botched a suicide squeeze, Jason Bay slid headfirst into home plate to score on Jed Lowrie’s two-out single in the ninth inning. The defending World Series champions beat Los Angeles 3-2 Monday night in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series and advanced to play for the AL pennant for the fourth time in six seasons.

The wild-card Red Sox, who also won it all in 2004, will have a chance at a third title in five years if they can get past the Rays in the best-of-seven AL championship series that starts Friday night at Tampa Bay. Boston is 31-16 in October since the turn of the century, and both World Series runs began with a playoff sweep of the Angels.

Tampa Bay beat out Boston by two games in the AL East this season.