Finally, bottom's up for bottom of the order

One part of the Angels' lineup that cried out for emergence was the bottom third of the order. Through the first two games of this ALDS, the Nos. 7-9 hitters combined to go 2 for 24 with 11 strikeouts.

"They've struggled," Scioscia said. "They've done a great job for the start of the season. But we haven't found that continuity. We really feel it's a deep lineup, but it hasn't surfaced yet in these playoffs."

Asked why they've struggled, Scioscia said, "I think it's a combination of things. You have to realize, we're facing good pitching. It's not, you know, a fluke that you see guys like [Jon ] Lester with their record and what they've done and [Daisuke] Matsuzaka and you know [Josh] Beckett [last night's starter]. These guys are good pitchers.

Against Beckett, though, the bottom third ramped up its production, combining to go 3 for 9 with two home runs (both by catcher Mike Napoli) and 3 RBIs (all by Napoli), and one strikeout. Even second baseman Howie Kendrick, who was 0 for 9 with five strikeouts in the first two games, snapped his playoff skein in the fifth when he singled to center on Beckett's 99th pitch.

Positive thinking
After the Chicago Cubs, the team with the best record in the National League, were swept in the NL Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers Saturday night, it seemed only reasonable to ask Angels manager Mike Scioscia, whose team earned the best record in the AL with a franchise-record 100 wins, if he had any theories regarding late-season struggles.

With his team on the brink of suffering another three-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox in this best-of-five ALDS, Scioscia was not about to entertain the question before Game 3 last night at Fenway Park.

"Well, first of all, we're not getting eliminated tonight, so I'm not going to answer that questions," Scioscia said, defiantly. "And we'll talk about that if it comes up, because we're not going to talk about it now."

Pressed on the matter, Scioscia declined to even address it in hypothetical terms.

"We're not getting eliminated tonight," he repeated, tersely. "And we'll talk about it at some point."

But some three hours before the start of last night's game was clearly not the time.

Scioscia needed to make sure his team, which dropped the first two games at Angel Stadium, remained upbeat and optimistic about its flickering playoff hopes.

"We're loose," Scioscia said. "I think there's a focus that our team has. This is not, obviously, the position you ever envision being in as you get into a series, but it's where we've put ourselves."

Before Game 2, reliever Justin Speier tried to break up the tension in the clubhouse when he showed up for a workout soaking from head to toe, wearing a wet suit, swim fins, and carrying a boogie board. He looked like Aquaman. While it did break up teammates, Speier's stunt did little to change the course of the Angels' postseason tailspin after they suffered a 7-5 setback in which closer Francisco Rodriguez, who recorded a major league-record 62 saves in the regular season, gave up a mammoth two-run homer to J.D. Drew in the top of the ninth.

Asked before last night's game if there had been any sightings of Aquaman in the visitors' clubhouse at Fenway Park, Scioscia managed a chuckle and said, "No Aquaman. Like I said, he's got cement flippers. So he's swimming somewhere with the fish right now."

It was Scioscia's fervent hope last night that his team avoid a similar fate.

"You know we've talked about it a lot," he said. "We want to bring that team that we saw this summer, bring it on to the field and take our chances with that. I think we saw some glimpses of it in Game 2 [when the Angels rallied from a 4-0 deficit in the first inning to tie it, 5-5, in the eighth]. We need it to emerge right now."

In plain sight
Garret Anderson, who faced Beckett in last year's ALDS with his lead right eye nearly swollen shut by conjuctivitis, entered last night's game with the Angels' best career batting average against Beckett: 8 for 17 (.471) with a home run. Designated hitter Vladimir Guerrero (.233 career average vs. Beckett) and right fielder Juan Rivera (.167) were tied for most career homers off Beckett with two apiece . . . Third baseman Chone Figgins, who reached base in his first three at-bats last night, entered the game with his team's only extra-base hit in the first two games, a triple to right in the eighth inning of Game 2. Last night, he led off with a ground-rule double to right, giving the Angels two extra-base hits through the first 19 innings of the series . . . Napoli's first career postseason home run, a two-run shot, snapped an Angels' postseason streak of 68 consecutive innings without a homer. Napoli added a solo shot to the Monster seats in the fifth . . . Orlando Cabrera was the last Angel to homer in the postseason, in Game 3 of the 2005 ALCS vs. the White Sox, the team for which he now plays.