Angels pushed to brink of elimination, then push back

Suddenly, they were on the way to ending that ugly 11-game postseason losing streak to the Red Sox. Suddenly, the Angels seemed to have their 100-win aura back.

Instead of being the team that could never escape Boston in October, they once again felt like the team that was the American League's best from April through September.

"This game is going to take our confidence way, way, way high," Rodriguez predicted.

It might not be enough. It might be that the Angels of October are still the group that has gone 7-for-35 (.200) with runners in scoring position in this series. It might be that the Angels are the team that made silly outs on the bases, the team that made history Sunday by botching a Jacoby Ellsbury pop fly and allowing it to become the first three-run single ever in a postseason game.

The Angels know they had no business letting Josh Beckett off the hook in the early innings of Game 3, and that they should have wrapped up this game long before the clock struck midnight.

But the Angels also know that their season isn't done. They're not the Cubs, the team someone tried to compare them to when Angels manager Mike Scioscia went to the interview room before Game 3.

"We're not getting eliminated tonight," Scioscia said. "So I'm not going to answer that question. We're not getting eliminated tonight."

In the end, he was right. And they weren't eliminated in the early hours of Monday morning, either.

But they sure did come too close for comfort.

Beckett threw 51 pitches in the first two innings, but the Angels had only a 1-0 lead going to the bottom of the second. Then came the Ellsbury pop fly, which second baseman Howie Kendrick should have caught (but which Hunter took the blame for).

It was 3-1 Red Sox then, and two Mike Napoli home runs later, it was a 4-4 game through five. It was still 4-4 when Rodriguez appeared in the 10th, and still 4-4 when he survived that 33-pitch mess.

Rodriguez pitched in 76 games this year, but only once (back in May) did he throw as many as 33 pitches.

That's fine, Rodriguez said. He'll be ready for Game 4, he said. He still has something left.

"Of course I do," he said. "I have plenty in the tank. My tank is not on reserve right now. It's still halfway."

Turns out the Angels have something left, too. They have one game left, and maybe a lot more.

"You see the smiles in the clubhouse," Hunter said. "We're ready to go. We're going to be ready to fight tomorrow."

They smell blood. And for once in an October series with the Red Sox, it's not their own.