Red Sox take hope from 2004

CLEVELAND – History gives Josh Beckett and the Boston Red Sox a pretty good shot. They’ve come back from big postseason deficits.

Then again, they didn’t do it against the Cleveland Indians.

Down 3-1 in the A.L. Championship Series, Beckett and Boston will try to save their season when they face Cleveland’s C.C. Sabathia tonight. It’s a rematch of the opener, the game the Red Sox won.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in the league that we’d prefer on the mound for our team in this situation,” Boston third baseman Mike Lowell said. “We can believe all we want, but we have to get hits off Sabathia and hold them down.”

In 2004, the Red Sox ended an 86-year World Series championship drought with a four-game sweep of St. Louis. First, though, they had to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the ALCS against the New York Yankees.

The Red Sox became the first team to win a postseason series after losing the first three games.

“When you see something that’s never been done before, you can believe in anything,” first baseman Kevin Youkilis said. “For us, it’s all about winning one game.”

Only seven players from that World Series team, including David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, are still with the Red Sox.

One who wasn’t there also came back from a 3-1 LCS deficit.

Beckett started Florida’s comeback in 2003 with a two-hit shutout against the Chicago Cubs in Game 5. He struck out 11 and walked one, a remarkable NLCS performance that was soon overshadowed.

Working on three days’ rest, he pitched a World Series-clinching, five-hit shutout in Game 6 against the Yankees.

“It was kind of like a party in 2003,” Beckett said. “It was fun. It was a bunch of young guys, and we were just out having fun.”

Boston manager Terry Francona probably will make one change in his usual lineup, starting switch-hitter Bobby Kielty in right field in place of lefty J.D. Drew against lefty Sabathia.