Angels insist they have a prayer

They know, they know. They're in some pretty dire straits again.

As bleak as the Angels' situation is, facing a two-game deficit headed into Game 3 of this best-of-five Division Series tonight against the Red Sox, they are pinning their faith on the fact that they won five of six games at Fenway Park this season.

This is what it has come down to for the runaway AL West champions, who clinched a playoff berth 18 games before the end of their franchise-record 100-win season: The Angels must sweep the next two at Fenway to shift the series back to Angel Stadium for a deciding game.

Sounds doable, no?

"We won at Fenway all year," said Howie Kendrick following Friday night's 7-5 loss in Game 2 before a stunned Angel Stadium crowd of 45,354. "I don't think it's as much the park as us playing there. We just have to go out and play.

"We can beat those guys, and we've proved that throughout the year, so I don't think it's in our mind-set, thinking that we can't beat those guys. It's just a matter of executing."

For the Angels, executing - and winning - in the playoffs has become a particularly vexing problem, especially against the Red Sox.

While they handily won the regular-season series, 8-1, including a three-game sweep at Fenway July 28-30, the Angels have been confounded by the Sox in the postseason, losing 11 consecutive games to Boston dating back to 1986.

"For me, we still have to hit better with runners in scoring position," said Mark Teixeira, a playoff newcomer acquired July 29 from Atlanta who has hit a gaudy .714 (5 for 7) with three runs and an RBI in his first two career postseason games but has yet to record an extra-base hit. "We've left way too many guys on the last two [games]. And when you leave a lot of guys on the bases, it's going to come back and haunt you."

But Teixeira, along with the rest of his teammates, hopes the change of venue will do the Halos good.

"We've got to do something special," Teixeira said. "There have been plenty of teams who have come back from 0-2 deficits."

But none of them have been Angels. They have never advanced to the next round after starting out the ALDS 0-2. In fact, it's the fourth time the Angels have found themselves trailing a playoff series by such a margin, and the third time they've trailed the Sox in the ALDS.

"We have to win three games in a row, and in a playoff situation it seems like a ton of games," Teixeira said. "But, you know, we've had a lot of three-game winning streaks against good teams, so that's what we're going to try to do when we're out there."

How tough will it be to send the series back to Angel Stadium?

"It'd be tough, but we've done it," Teixeira said. "My first game as an Angel was a pretty good win against Josh Beckett [at Fenway Park July 30]. I believe Joe Saunders [tonight's starter] started that game also. So I'm hoping for the same outcome."

After the Sox erupted against Ervin Santana in the first inning Friday night for four runs on five hits - the biggest of which was Jason Bay's three-run homer - the Angels responded. They cobbled together five one-run innings and tied it at 5 in the eighth when Chone Figgins led off with a triple - the Angels' first extra-base hit of the series - and scored on Teixeira's sacrifice fly to center off Jonathan Papelbon.

"I don't want to play the 'we're unlucky' card, but we hit a lot of balls hard the last two games and they were all right to outfielders," Teixeira said. "They didn't hit any gaps, they didn't hit any lines, but that's baseball."

Underscoring the Angels' offensive frustration is their .190 average (4 for 21) with runners in scoring position in the first two games. Friday night, the Red Sox stranded 10 runners, the Angels 11. In Boston's 4-1 triumph in Game 1 Wednesday, each team left nine men on base.

"Hitting in scoring position continues to hurt us," Scioscia said. "Three for 14 [Friday night], 1 for 7 [Wednesday night]."

As devastating as the start of Game 2 was for the Angels, the end proved just as shocking.

Francisco Rodriguez, who set a major league mark with 62 saves this season, served up a two-run homer to J.D. Drew in the ninth that broke a 5-5 tie.

"Yeah, we left a lot of men on base, but the big bombs killed us," said Torii Hunter. "Bay? He's the new Manny, I guess. He's out there swinging the bat like crazy. J.D. Drew came through with a big home run at the end, and it was kind of deflating because we knew they had Papelbon up there and we had to do anything we could do to get runners on base. He's that good."

Rodriguez declined to speak to reporters afterward, so he couldn't be asked about having flashbacks to Manny Ramirez's walk-off homer in Game 2 of last year's ALDS against him.

"I think he made his pitch there and J.D. got to it," said catcher Mike Napoli. "Sometimes you just got to tip your hat to the guy."

Now the Angels must win tonight or be swept in the ALDS for the second year in a row by the Sox.

"There is a challenge in front of us, and the only way to meet it is to go pitch-by-pitch, inning-by-inning, on Sunday," said Scioscia.

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com