BOSTON — Kevin Crimmins was stunned, too. Unable to follow his fellow Red Sox fans out of Fenway Park, he stood near the last row of the grandstand seats behind home plate, gazing at the spot where the Los Angeles Angels had celebrated their victory.

"Just trying to put an end to the season," he said. "All along we knew this team wasn't the best. We hoped they could be."

Instead, the Red Sox collapsed in a horrific ninth inning. Jonathan Papelbon, who closed out so many victories in 2009, couldn't when it mattered most. He allowed three Angels to score in the ninth and that was shocking enough.

"I saw 82 games in this ballpark this year," said Crimmins, who lives in the Massachusetts town of Canton. "I was hoping to see more."

Baseball is done at Fenway until next year. The mojo that carried the Red Sox through that wondrous 2004 World Series win and again in 2007 is gone. The fun and the idiocy of '04 and the swagger and Irish jigs of '07 are gone.

The clubhouse this season had character but never did produce the hitters that could intimidate pitching staffs.

There was much hand-wringing this weekend that there was too little passion in the Red Sox dugout and too little coming back from the fans, that somehow the Red Sox soul was a victim of the nation's economy and owner John Henry's fiscal restraint.

You've watched Torii Hunter breathe life into his teammates when they seemed dead and wondered why the Red Sox no longer had that player. Was no one listening to Dustin Pedroia anymore?

By the way, I'm not sure I would have pitched to Hunter in that ninth inning implosion, either. Hunter was the hero in waiting. Better to take the bat out of his hands and pitch to Vladimir Guerrero, whose discipline at the plate has been missing.

Sunday, I left the press box to spend the ninth inning among the Red Sox fans behind the Angels' dugout. The Fenway buzz was back. It was there innings before when the Red Sox scored three runs in the third and two more in the fourth with Angels' starter Scott Kazmir on the mound.

Papelbon got the first two outs in the ninth and fans everywhere were standing and chanting: One more out.

Then Erick Aybar singled and Chone Figgins walked on a full count. There were groans.

To some, it appeared Papelbon had hurt himself on ball four. There was a conference on the mound. It brought back memories of another conference, between Manager Grady Little and Pedro Martinez in 2003 at Yankee Stadium. Martinez stayed in that game, too and the Red Sox lost.

The conference broke up and the Angels' hits followed until three runs scored. I looked around and saw disbelief. It was the same disbelief that was in the faces of Yankees fans when the Red Sox opened their lead in Game 7 of the 2004 American League Championship Series.

Many rows up in Section 22, about 100 fans clad in Angels red whooped and jumped in front of their seats.

"It doesn't get any better than this," said Spencer Heichman, after I hiked up the steps. He's from Yorba Linda, Calif., not far from Anaheim and the Angels. He's a 5-foot-6 sophomore forward on the Quinnipiac University hockey team and, no surprise, he was wearing a Chone Figgins shirt.

Quinnipiac took two games from Ohio State in Columbus earlier in the weekend. After several thousand dollars changed hands, Heichman, his parents, some teammates and friends found themselves in Fenway Park, seated behind Angels family members.

What, you thought only Red Sox fans travel far when the scent of victory is in the air?

"The Red Sox have owned us in the past," said Darren Heichman, Spencer's father. He remembers the 2002 season, when the Angels won their first World Series. It's taken seven years, and this year's World Series isn't in their grasp yet, but he knew this day would come.

"I'd start revamping the Red Sox," said Crimmins, the Boston fan. How? He didn't have an answer.

Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at: ssolloway@pressherald.com