Angels shake off postseason streak

BOSTON – Torii Hunter guessed at how long it took Sunday night before he and his Los Angeles Angels teammates could finally exhale.

"About five hours?" he said. "I could feel it in my bones. The fog rolled in; it was almost morning time. Sad."

He laughed.

"If it was a fifth," he said, "we'd all be drunk."

Five hours and 19 minutes after Boston's Josh Beckett threw Game 3's first pitch at Fenway Park, the Angels finally broke free of the stranglehold the Red Sox have applied on them in the postseason, winning 5-4 in 12 innings to extend their summer for at least another night. Erick Aybar, hitless in his previous 13 postseason at-bats, singled home Mike Napoli, who homered twice off Beckett and touched off the game-winning rally with a hit off Red Sox lefty reliever Javier Lopez. And when Jered Weaver, in his first-ever relief appearance, retired Alex Cora on a roller to third for the final out at 12:48 a.m. ET Monday, the Angels celebrated the end of a streak that had taken on Cubsian proportions.

Well short of a century, of course, but still the Angels had lost 11 straight playoff games to the Red Sox dating back to 1986, including three-game sweeps in 2004 and 2007 and the first two games of this series.

"It changes, for real," Hunter said of finally breaking through. "It changes everything. We smell blood. That's what I can tell you. When you get a win like that and you've got a chance to go home tomorrow night [with the series tied], you smell blood. That's the way it is."

The Angels did not make it easy on themselves Sunday night. In the second inning, something spooked second baseman Howie Kendrick, who shied away from Jacoby Ellsbury's bases-loaded pop fly into short center at the last moment and allowed it to drop for a three-run single, the first in postseason history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Hunter had charged in from center field but pulled up when he saw Kendrick, who has been having a miserable time of it (he struck out four times in Game 2), camped under the ball. Standup teammate that he is, Hunter took the bullet for the play, saying he should have called off Kendrick, even though the play was there for the second baseman to make.

The Red Sox led 3-1, and if this had been last October, when Beckett was doing a splendid impression of Bob Gibson, the Angels would have been finished. But Beckett strained an oblique muscle during a side session prior to what would have been his last start of the regular season, was bumped from a Game 1 assignment and labored from the outset Sunday night, throwing 30 pitches in the first inning, when he walked in a run with the bases loaded.

Napoli's first home run, after a double by Vladimir Guerrero, tied the score in the third, and after the Angels left the bases loaded in the fourth, Napoli gave the Angels a 4-3 lead with his second home run in the fifth.

The Red Sox tied it in the bottom of the fifth on doubles by Jacoby Ellsbury and Kevin Youkilis, and then both teams' bullpens went into shutdown mode. That included Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez, who gave up a game-deciding home run to J.D. Drew in Game 2 – the first home run he had allowed in Angel Stadium all season – and last year had been taken deep by Manny Ramirez in a Game 2 walkoff home run on Yawkey Way.

K-Rod, who had set a big-league record with 62 regular-season saves, went into seclusion after the Drew home run. He declined to speak with reporters after the game Friday and on the off-day here Saturday.

"It was difficult," he said. "I'm not going to lie to you. When I gave up the [Drew] home run, I felt I let a lot of people down.

"I felt really destroyed; I'm not going to lie to you."

He almost was rendered speechless again Sunday night, when he loaded the bases in the 10th on walks to David Ortiz and Mike Lowell sandwiched around a single to Kevin Youkilis, then cringed when Red Sox rookie Jed Lowrie smoked a line drive to right.

"When he hit it," he said, "I thought the game was over. He put a good swing on it. I thought it was going to fall in."

Instead, he leaped off the mound pumping his fists when he saw the ball carry into the glove of Angels right-fielder Gary Matthews Jr. for the final out of the inning.

K-Rod threw 33 pitches Sunday night, matching the most pitches he has thrown in an outing this season. Will he have anything left if manager Mike Scioscia calls upon him in Game 4 Monday night?

"Of course I do," he said. "I've got plenty left in the tank. It's not on (empty). Right now, it's still halfway.

"Today's outing, even though it was shaky, I feel fine. I feel a lot stronger. We'll see what happens tomorrow."

The Angels have their ace, John Lackey, coming back for Game 4. It's the reason they chose this series format, one with enough days off to allow Scioscia to use just three starters, Lackey and Ervin Santana both available to take a second turn against Boston on full rest.

The Red Sox will counter with Jon Lester, who was dominating in a 4-1 Game 1 win in Anaheim.

But Hunter insisted the Angels have been released.

"We got the victory and killed that streak," he said, his voice rising as he declared, "so I don't want to hear nothing about that streak ever again."

Only one team, the 2001 New York Yankees, has lost the first two games of a division series at home, then come back to win. The Angels, with Scot Shields having pitched 2 1/3 innings and K-Rod stretched as he was, will need Lackey to pitch deep into Monday night.

"He's been our horse for the last few years," Shields said. "I guarantee you he wants the ball. We gave him a chance to get the ball tomorrow, and hopefully we'll take advantage of it."

Before the game, Scioscia had batted away a question about why teams who dominated in the regular season get bounced out of the playoffs. "We're not getting eliminated tonight," he said.

And afterward?

"We felt we were going to play better," he said. "That game was swinging on a heartbeat for most of the night. Fortunately we got it done at the end."

Napoli's first home run broke a streak of 68 innings since the last Angels postseason home run; and after 19 of their 20 hits in the first two games were singles, they had four extra-base hits Sunday, beginning with Chone Figgins' leadoff double and including a double by Guerrero, the first extra-base hit in his last 57 postseason at-bats.

Napoli, who hit 20 home runs during the regular season despite splitting time with Mike Mathis, originally was signed by Angels scout Todd Claus, who is now an advance scout for the Red Sox.

"Hopefully," Scioscia said, "about a month from now we'll talk about that 3-2 breaking ball that Nap hit off one of the toughest pitchers ever in a playoff environment."

Hunter, however, had more immediate concerns.

"Man I'll you what," he said, "I've got to get a massage and relax. I was so tense."