He stood on the mound as a strong-willed life preserver, impervious to the heat of the night. The mission was simple and absolute. Save the sinking Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox were down 3-1 in the American League Championship Series and running out of margin for error. So Josh Beckett refused to make many, even if there was peril from the batters' box to the national anthem.

What would get to him at this moment of crisis? The answer was ... nothing.

Not the burden of keeping his team alive, in a hostile ballpark aflame with anticipation.

Nor the surging Cleveland hitters, who had made confetti of the other Boston starters.

Nor the Indians' curious choice of anthem singer, the country crooner Danielle Peck, who also happens to be his ex-girlfriend.

Nor even the foolish antics of his own teammate, the serial knucklehead, Manny Ramirez.

None of that would matter, on a night Beckett kept the Indians' runners off base and their corks in the champagne bottle. A night his electric fastball and biting curve struck out 11 and allowed five hits in eight innings, beat Cleveland 7-1 and thickened the plot.

This is what genuine stars do. They redirect fate.

So the Indians are 3-0 against Boston at-large but 0-2 against Beckett. They still lead 3-2, but the series returns to Fenway Park and history is clearing its throat to get attention. Three years ago Thursday night, the Red Sox were down in games to the Yankees in their ALCS 3-0, but rallied to play another day.

You might remember what happened next.

So the Red Sox will not lack for confidence, but will need something better from their other starters back home. Beckett can't pitch every night.

This was survival, and nothing less. Just as it had been four years ago, when Florida trailed the Chicago Cubs 3-1, with the entire world ready to celebrate a Cubs World Series. But Beckett stopped the Marlins' bleeding in Game 5.

The Marlins were soon cavorting on Yankee Stadium turf as World Series champions, the clincher courtesy of Beckett.

He is back to his October tricks, 3-0 this postseason, having allowed three runs in 23 innings.

There were disturbing Red Sox signs early tonight, when in the first five innings they stranded seven men, hit into two double plays, and had one runner thrown out at home.

A bad night for bad omens. But Beckett was the cure for whatever ailed the Red Sox.

Then there was Ramirez, who broke a 1-1 tie in the third with a most undignified RBI.

This was "Manny being Manny," which is a phrase as disconcerting in Boston as "hurricane watch."

See Manny hit the ball to deep right center. See Manny watch the ball. See Manny finally pull away from home plate, like a cement truck slowly leaving a fuel pump.

See him gaze at the ball some more as he gently lopes to first base, waiting for the official signal, so he could officially begin his home run fox trot.

Except, the ball is bouncing back into play, having hit the top of the wall. The umpires are not signaling anything. David Ortiz, laboring on a knee full of cortisone, makes his way all the way around from first base to score.

But Manny stops at first, proud owner of a 390-foot RBI single. This from the man who said Wednesday, to a jittery and grumpy Red Sox Nation, that should Boston be eliminated ... "who cares? There's always next year."

Good thing for the Red Sox, Beckett worked with a tad more urgency. He stood on the mound impassively before the seventh inning, as his old flame belted out, "God Bless America." Then resumed throwing 96 mile-an-hour fastballs.

Back in New England, where there is now more baseball to be played, they sang their own version.