BOSTON – The Los Angeles Angels might have thought they caught a break when they didn't have to face Red Sox ace Josh Beckett in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

Turns out, they'll have to get past him to keep their season alive.

Beckett said Saturday he's ready to pitch in Game 3 of the best-of-five AL playoff series against Los Angeles. That means that if Angels lefty Joe Saunders is going to force a Game 4 on Monday, he'll have to do it against Beckett, one of the best postseason pitchers in baseball history.

“He loves that pressure situation,” Red Sox reliever Justin Masterson said. “When you have a 2-0 lead on the board and Josh Beckett on the mound, it's a great feeling. He's one of my favorites to watch.

“What we need to do is jump on them early. In baseball terms, we have to jump on their throats and not give them any momentum.”

Beckett has won five consecutive postseason starts dating to Game 6 of the 2003 World Series, when he pitched a five-hit shutout on three days' rest to help Florida eliminate the Yankees. He won all four of his postseason starts last year, when Boston swept the Angels in the first round en route to its second championship in four seasons.

In all, Beckett is 6-2 with a 1.73 ERA in the postseason – the third-lowest playoff ERA ever for pitchers with at least 40 innings.

“The stage, or the size of the game, he doesn't shrink from that,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “I think he looks forward to the challenge. He has pitched in some unbelievable games – not just in the postseason. But when you get to the postseason, he has been some kind of pitcher.”

Indeed, Beckett has been plenty good in the regular season, too.

He was the only 20-game winner in the majors last year, going 36-18 in his first two seasons in Boston as he became the ace of the staff. But this season he was just 12-10 with a 4.03 ERA while fighting off right elbow tendinitis in August and a strained oblique muscle that scratched him from the regular-season finale.

With Beckett pushed back from his presumptive series-opening start, Jon Lester and Daisuke Matsuzaka filled in at Anaheim and staked the Red Sox to a 2-0 lead in the series. Now Beckett will have a chance to eliminate the team that had beaten Boston eight straight times while going a major league-best 100-62 in the regular season.

“We haven't seen what won us 100 games in the regular season out there. We haven't seen our team on the field,” manager Mike Scioscia said. “That's what's been frustrating for us.

“I hope it's not going to be business as usual for us as far as what we've done the first two games. We need to press the offense. We need early runs. ... That's how we won, and it's going to take contributions from everybody in the lineup to do that.”

That will include center fielder Torii Hunter, who hyperextended his left knee in Friday night's game, a 7-5 loss. Scioscia said Hunter would skip batting practice on Saturday but be ready to go on Sunday.

The Red Sox have some injuries of their own.

Third baseman Mike Lowell, who played in the first game but sat out the second, is planning to play in Game 3 (and any other games in the series). Right fielder J.D. Drew, who hit the game-winning homer in the ninth inning of Friday night's game, said he was still trying to figure out how his back would respond.

Hunter could have been speaking for all the banged-up players when he said, “A cross-country flight is not the best treatment.”

Nor is facing Beckett.

“I'll tell you, he's game on,” Hunter said. “He comes in ready to pitch. We know that. We have to be patient and wait for our pitches.

“There still is confidence. We've played well on the road. I know we're a pretty good team. It's about getting everybody together and row the boat together.”

They don't have much time left, and they're relying on a playoff rookie to keep the Red Sox from sweeping the Angels out of the postseason for the third time in a row since 2004.

“I welcome the opportunity. I'm just itching to get out there and put up some zeros and give us a chance. It's what we've been trying to do all year,” Saunders said. “Everybody's told me the postseason is a different ballgame, so (I'm) just looking forward to getting out there and playing.”