The ninth-inning, game-winning suicide squeeze that David Eckstein laid down yesterday afternoon was just the kind of pesky play one could expect from the former Red Sox prospect.

Lowell Spinners fans saw him do it many times in 1997.

``That was for Dick,'' said Eckstein, smiling widely after the Anaheim Angels beat the Red Sox, 8-3, yesterday at Fenway Park. He was referring to his former Spinners manager, Dick Berardino, who is now a Red Sox player development consultant and spring training coordinator.

``We did it almost every opportunity we could that year,'' Eckstein said. ``I was pretty successful, too. I think I only fouled off a ball once.''

That memory jibed with Berardino's. The fact that Eckstein brought it up inspired a hearty laugh from Berardino, who was in Lowell yesterday watching the Spinners play.

``Oh, he did that at least four or five times with us,'' Berardino said. ``That's great. He does all the little things right. He's got such good bat control.''

Eckstein came up to the plate in the ninth with one out and runners on first and third. The speedy Chone Figgins was on third and on the first pitch from Derek Lowe, Eckstein bunted. It went directly toward the pitcher's mound and Lowe was unable to get it back to catcher Jason Varitek in time.

The run broke open a 3-3 tie, but Eckstein had, as Berardino said, already done many of the little things to help put the Angels in a position to win.

In the first inning, the leadoff hitter's towering fly ball was a foot shy of going over The Wall. After he got to third, he scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Orlando Palmeiro. Varitek was blocking the plate well. As Varitek brought down the high throw from Trot Nixon, Eckstein was sliding around him. As his body slid by the plate, he stuck out his right hand to graze its surface.

In the fifth inning, Eckstein singled and stole second, putting himself in scoring position, which he did for the third Angels run.

``We play a full nine innings,'' Eckstein said. ``(The suicide squeeze) was the only way we're going to score there.''

The Red Sox' questionable decision that allowed Eckstein to be claimed off of waivers two years ago has been told many times before. Eckstein is not looking back.

``They've got a really good player at shortstop, so I wasn't going to be playing shortstop there, not at all,'' Eckstein said. ``If anyone saw me in (Triple-A) Pawtucket, most people would say I had no right to be up there. They did what they had to do.''

And yesterday Eckstein did what he done before - this time to the Red Sox, not for them.