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 yesterday 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 tomorrow, 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.

This season Beckett 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."

Scioscia said his center fielder Torii Hunter, who hyperextended his left knee in Friday night's game, would skip batting practice yesterday but be ready to go today.

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.