Anaheim and Chicago fought off American League elimination Sunday as the Angels went the distance to beat Boston in a marathon contest and the White Sox batters broke out of a mini-slump to put Tampa’s party on hold.

Erick Aybar singled in the go ahead run in the 12 inning to give the Angels a 5-4 win over the Red Sox ending game three of their first round Major League Baseball series.

Mike Napoli hit two homers and scored the winning run for Anaheim in a game that lasted over five hours and ended after midnight Boston time. The Red Sox lead two games to one, with game four scheduled for Monday.

“I was trying to drop ball up the middle and I got a pitch I could handle,” Napoli said.

With lefthander Javier Lopez (0-1) on the mound to start the 12th, Napoli fouled off three pitches before driving a 2-2 offering into left field. Howie Kendrick sacrificed him to second before Aybar singled to centre.

Anaheim’s win snapped an 11-game losing streak against Boston in the playoffs.

“We got to come back out here tomorrow and play hard and see what happens,” Napoli said. “I got the adrenaline going so I will be fine tonight.”

The Red Sox had a chance to end it in the 10th when they loaded the bases against Francisco Rodriguez, but rookie Jed Lowrie lined out to right field to end the threat.

Boston grabbed three runs in the second to take the lead on a defensive breakdown by the Angels. With the bases loaded and two out, Jacoby Ellsbury hit a pop up into shallow centre field.

Napoli tied it at 3-3 with a two-run blast deep over the “Green Monster” in left field in the bottom of the frame and gave the Angels the lead with a solo blast in the fifth off Josh Beckett.

The Red Sox’s ace lasted five innings and was charged with all four runs, allowing nine hits and walking four while striking out six.

Beckett entered the contest with a 6-0 record and a 1.73 ERA in his postseason career but was working on 12 days’ rest after being shut down with a strained oblique muscle.

Boston came back to tie the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth when Ellsbury led off with a double and came in to score on Kevin Youkilis’ two-out double to centre field.

That ended the night for Anaheim lefthander Joe Saunders, who surrendered four runs and five hits while walking four and striking out two.

John Danks struck out seven batters in 6 2/3 innings as Chicago took a 5-3 win over Tampa Bay in game three of their series.

“My biggest thing is try to keep it as ordinary as possible,” Danks said. “I feel like I was able to do that today.”

Dewayne Wise drove in two runs while AJ Pierzynski added a couple of hits and an RBI for the White Sox, who narrowed the gap to 2-1 and will host the Rays in game four of the best-of-five playoff on Monday.

“Momentum is a day to day thing in baseball,” Pierzynski said. “It’s not like hockey, basketball, football. Baseball changes pitch by pitch, inning by inning. The bottom line is you have to find a way to win every inning.”

Juan Uribe capped the scoring in the sixth inning with an RBI single as the White Sox rallied from a 1-0 deficit with a three-run fourth.

Danks was superb in the middle innings, getting 12 of 14 batters out between the third and sixth.

Danks finished with three walks and allowed three runs and seven hits. He left the game after allowing a single to Carlos Pena in the seventh inning.

© AFP 2012

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