"Paul Revere's ride took less time.

But the Angels managed to rally their troops and extend their stay in the post-season with Erick Aybar's RBI single in the 12th inning - and sixth hour - of a 5-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Game 3 of their American League Division Series Sunday night (and Monday morning on the East Coast).

"That's a long night," Angels third baseman Chone Figgins said. "I looked up at the time on the scoreboard and it was 11 o'clock then 12 o'clock - then Aybar got the big hit and I was jumping up and down.

"We were against the wall from the first pitch on. We battled. Some things happened. But our team battled through it."

"Some things happened" alright - five hours and 19 minutes worth of things.

In the end, the Angels finally snapped their losing streak in the post-season (nine games) and in playoff games against the Red Sox (11 games, the longest post-season run of domination by one team over another in baseball history).

More importantly to the Angels' immediate future, it keeps them alive to play another day - or actually the same day. Game 4 (with John Lackey and Jon Lester reprising their Game 1 starting roles) is scheduled to start less than 20 hours after Jered Weaver (in the first relief appearance of his career) got Dustin Pedroia to ground out to end Game 3.

"That was long. It was a battle," Angels centerfielder Torii Hunter said. "It gave us life. Come ready to go tomorrow, get that win and go home with it.

"Man, I tell you what - I need to get a message and relax. … It was intense out there."

Aybar's run-scoring single in the 12th ended a long string of clutch-less hitting by the Angels. Before his hit, the Angels were batting .182 (6 for 33) with runners in scoring position in this series and were on their way to stranding 16 baserunners in Game 3 (for a series total of 36).

"That game was swinging on a heartbeat for most of the night," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "Fortunately, we got it done in the end."

They couldn't get it done at the beginning.

Josh Beckett took the mound with a reputation as a big-game pitcher. He was game but not so big, laboring through his first start since Sept. 22 at a pace that gave his injured oblique plenty of time to heal between pitches.

The Angels had him on the ropes in the first inning when he threw 30 pitches and found the strike zone with only 14 of them. But their only run came on a bases-loaded walk to Juan Rivera. The next batter, Mike Napoli. bounced into an inning-ending forceout.

That was only the first of two times the Angels left the bases loaded to end an inning Sunday, something they've done four times this series (while scoring just two runs in those innings).

Napoli more than made up for it, though, with a two-run home run in the third inning, a towering and tower-ringing shot that bounced high off the light towers above the Green Monster. That snapped"