Angels catcher Mike Napoli hits his second home run of Game 3 in the fifth inning. (Steven Senne/Associated Press)A day off and change of scenery did wonders for Mike Napoli.
The Los Angeles Angels catcher homered in the third and fifth innings and scored the winning run in the 12th for a 5-4 win over the hometown Boston Red Sox in a game played in cool, misty conditions that ended at 12:47 a.m. ET on Monday.
With the victory, Los Angeles halted an 11-game playoff losing streak to the Red Sox, who swept the Angels in the first round in 2004 and 2007 en route to a pair of World Series titles.
Napoli, who went 0-for-4 in the opener of the best-of-five American League Division Series and was given Game 2 off on Friday in Anaheim, Calif., responded with three hits in five at-bats at Boston.
"Hopefully, about a month from now [after the World Series] we'll talk about that 3-2 breaking pitch that Nap hit [in the third inning] off one of the toughest pitchers ever in a playoff environment," Scioscia said, referring to Red Sox starter Josh Beckett. "That was big. It got us back in the game."
Boston lefty Jon Lester will face John Lackey Monday at 8:37 p.m. ET, and if the Angels can win that one they would return home for the decisive fifth game on Wednesday.
"We've got to come back out here tomorrow and get after it again," Napoli said. "We're not done yet."
Left-hander Javier Lopez (0-1) relieved Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon in the 12th inning and promptly gave up a single to Napoli, who had 20 home runs in the regular season.
The six-foot, 205-pound backstop advanced to second base on a Howie Kendrick sacrifice bunt and scored when Erick Aybar looped a single to centre-field to snap out of a 0-for-13 funk in the series.
Starter Jered Weaver — pitching out of the Angels' bullpen in these playoffs — walked David Ortiz, the first batter he saw in the bottom of the 12th. He then retired the next three hitters, inducing Alex Cora to ground out to end the five-hour, 19-minute contest and earn his first career playoff win.
The Angels got six scoreless innings from five relievers to keep them in the game.
Boston had the Angels on the ropes in the bottom of the 10th against Francisco Rodriguez, who walked Mike Lowell with two out to load the bases.
But the 2008 major league saves leader got Jed Lowrie to fly out to right field on his 33rd pitch of the inning.
Los Angeles quieted many of the 39,067 fans at Fenway Park in the first inning when it opened the scoring against Beckett, who was scratched for Boston's regular-season finale with a strained oblique (rib) muscle.
Beckett, who had won five straight post-season starts dating to Game 6 of the 2003 World Series, was touched for a leadoff double by Chone Figgins, who advanced to third base on Torii Hunter's two-out single and scored on a Juan Rivera bases-loaded walk.
Beckett, who sported a 6.30 earned-run average in the first inning over his previous 10 playoff starts, pitched out of a jam in the second before Vladimir Guerrero doubled to open the third frame for his first extra-base hit in 58 post-season at-bats.
Three batters later, Napoli launched a curveball off the light standard over the Green Monster in left for his first career hit against Beckett, who allowed 11 earned runs over 13 1/3 innings in a pair of regular-season losses to Los Angeles.
Napoli took a 92 mile-per-hour fastball from Beckett over the fence in left-centre for a solo home run in the fifth to snap a 3-3 tie.
The Red Sox responded in the bottom of the frame against Los Angels starter Joe Saunders. Jacoby Ellsbury doubled off the glove of left-field Garret Anderson and scored three batters later on a Kevin Youkilis two-base hit.
Leading 1-0 in the third inning, the Angels surrendered the first bases-clearing single in post-season history when Kendrick let a pop up behind second base off the bat of Ellsbury drop between himself and centre-fielder Hunter as Lowrie, Jason Varitek and Coco Crisp came around to score.
Beckett needed 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.
In all, Beckett was charged with four runs on nine hits and four walks, striking out six in five innings. The fiery right-hander, who shut out the Angels in Game 1 of last year's first-round sweep, saw his post-season ERA balloon to 2.09 from 1.73, which had been the third-best in baseball history (minimum 40 innings).
Saunders, who began Sunday night 4-0 in six career starts versus the Red Sox, reeived a rough initiation in his first post-season start.
He gave up four runs on five hits and four walks, striking out two in 4 2/3 innings. But instead of the line-drive homers that cost Beckett, Saunders was hurt most by the fluke popup in the second.
