Beckett shines to keep Red Sox alive in ALCS

CLEVELAND, Ohio (Reuters) - Boston's Josh Beckett dazzled on the mound to help the Red Sox stay alive in the American League Championship Series with a 7-1 road victory over the Cleveland Indians in Game Five on Thursday.

The Indians lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 but will now have to win at least once in Boston to book a World Series showdown with the Colorado Rockies.

With a capacity crowd at Jacobs Field set to celebrate a sixth trip to the World Series, Beckett spoiled the party with eight innings of brilliance, allowing just one run on five hits to send the teams back to Fenway Park for Game Six on Saturday.

The Major League's only 20-game winner this season, Beckett got off to a shaky start by yielding one run on three hits in the first inning.

However, the hard-throwing righthander soon found his rhythm and retired nine straight batters without allowing a hit to the outfield until Casey Blake's two-out single in the fifth.

Beckett finished the night with 11 strikeouts to match his post-season career high while improving his playoff record to 3-0 for this campaign.

Kevin Youkilis backed up Beckett's superb effort with a first inning solo home run and an RBI triple in the seventh while David Ortiz had a pair of sacrifice flies.

The Red Sox got the game off to a booming start, Youkilis taking a 1-0 offering from Cleveland starter C.C. Sabathia and hammering it over the left field wall.

TOOK COMMAND

Cleveland responded in the bottom of the inning, Travis Hafner hitting into a fielder's choice to score Grady Sizemore.

The Red Sox looked to blow open the contest in the third when Manny Ramirez connected on what appeared to be a two-run homer.

But as the left fielder trotted to first base the ball dropped in on top of the centre field wall and bounced fair, holding the Boston slugger to an RBI single.

Boston finally took command in the seventh, however, when Dustin Pedroia led off the inning with a double and scored on Youkilis's triple, driving Sabathia from the game.

Ortiz welcomed Rafael Betancourt with a sacrifice fly to left that scored Youkilis and pushed the visitors 4-1 ahead.

The Red Sox padded their lead with three runs in the eighth, J.D. Drew racing home on a passed ball, Youkilis scoring Coco Crisp on a bases-loaded walk and Ortiz cashing in Julio Lugo on another sacrifice fly.

The Red Sox came into Game Five aware they faced a daunting but not insurmountable challenge.

Only 10 times in post-season history have teams fought back from 3-1 deficits to win a best-of-seven series, the last being the 2004 Red Sox, who rallied from 0-3 down to beat the New York Yankees on their way to the World Series title.