Red Sox top Angels 4-0 in postseason start

By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - The Boston Red Sox took a commanding start in the best-of-five American League Division Series on Wednesday, beating the Los Angeles Angels 4-0.

Boston pitcher Josh Beckett played his part well, retiring 19 consecutive batters over a streak that included five hitless innings and helped keep the Angels runless for the game.

"He attacked the strike zone with all of his pitches, said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "He got in a groove. I think he retired maybe 19 at one point. He worked quick. Stayed with all his pitches."

Beckett tossed 108 pitches, remaining on the mound for the entire game.

"It's always great and it's a really cool thing to go out there and be the only pitcher that pitches for your team that day," Beckett said. "I never got ahead of myself. It was always one pitch at a time."

Red Sox hitters gave their team an early lead, with first baseman Kevin Youkilis hitting a first-inning solo home run that cleared Boston's towering "Green Monster" left-field wall.

"I got a good pitch, a good fastball to hit and took advantage of it," said Youkilis. "Definitely left-center field here is very tough sometimes to hit it out, and to get it up there it felt really good."

David Ortiz brought the gap to 3-0 with a third-inning homer to right field that drove in Youkilis. Third baseman Mike Lowell put another run on the board with a single to center field that drove in left fielder Manny Ramirez.