BOSTON — Francisco Rodriguez’s biggest “save” of a record-breaking season came in a tie game.
Rodriguez wriggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the 10th inning, Mike Napoli hit two early homers before scoring the go-ahead run in the 12th and the Los Angeles Angels avoided another playoff sweep by beating the Boston Red Sox 5-4 on Sunday night in a game that lasted 5 hours, 19 minutes.
Boston had beaten Los Angeles in 11 consecutive American League playoff games, including three-game sweeps in 2004 and 2007 en route to World Series championships. But the Angels chased Red Sox ace Josh Beckett early, then got six scoreless innings from five relievers to keep them in the game.
Jon Lester will face Angels right-hander John Lackey in Game 4 tonight, and if the Angels can win that one they would return home for the decisive fifth game on Wednesday.
Napoli hit a mammoth homer off the Green Monster light stanchion to tie the game 3-all in the third, then gave Los Angeles a lead with his second homer before the Red Sox tied it 4-4 in the fifth. It stayed that way until Napoli singled to lead off the 12th, went to second on Howie Kendrick’s sacrifice bunt and scored when Erick Aybar blooped a single to left-center.
Jered Weaver, making his first career relief appearance, pitched two scoreless innings for the win. Javier Lopez, the sixth Boston pitcher, took the loss.
Winner of a major-league best 100 games in the regular season, Los Angeles was in danger of the shortest possible stay in the playoffs against the wild-card Red Sox. After losing the first two at home, the Angels came to Boston needing to beat Beckett, who had been virtually unbeatable in October.
But Beckett struggled from the start, giving up a double on the first pitch of the game and needing 30 pitches to get through the first half-inning, which took 22 minutes. Meanwhile, the Angels left the bases loaded in the first and fourth — stranding eight in the first four innings.
The air was crisp, but the baseball was not.
The Angels misplayed a popup into three runs — the first three-run single in postseason history. Beckett failed to cover the bag on a grounder to first. Mike Lowell, playing with a sore hip, two-hopped a throw to first that Kevin Youkilis dug out to avoid an error. Torii Hunter was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double to lead off the ninth.
The Red Sox loaded the bases against Rodriguez in the 10th, but he got Jed Lowie on a routine fly to right to end the threat.
Beckett had been the presumptive Game 1 starter before a side strain in the last week of the regular season left him in need of a few more days’ rest. When the Red Sox opened a 2-0 lead in the series behind Lester and Daisuke Matsuzaka, the prospect of sending their ace out for the clincher seemed to guarantee their third straight playoff sweep of the Angels.
But Beckett struggled from the beginning, giving up a double to Chone Figgins on the first pitch of the game. In all, Beckett was charged with four runs on nine hits and four walks, striking out six in five innings.
The fiery right-hander saw his postseason ERA balloon to 2.09 from 1.73, which had been the third-best in baseball history (for pitchers with a minimum of 40 innings).
