Boston ? Francisco Rodriguez’s biggest save of a record-breaking season came in a tie game.

Rodriguez wriggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the 10th inning, Mike Napoli hit two early homers before scoring the go-ahead run in the 12th, and the Los Angeles Angels avoided another playoff sweep by beating the Boston Red Sox, 5-4, on Sunday night in a game that lasted 5 hours, 19 minutes.

Boston had beaten Los Angeles in 11 consecutive AL playoff games, including three-game sweeps in 2004 and ’07 en route to a pair of World Series titles. But the Angels chased Red Sox ace Josh Beckett early, then got six scoreless innings from five relievers to keep them in the game.

Jon Lester will face Angels right-hander John Lackey in Game 4 tonight, and if the Angels can win that one, they would return home for the decisive fifth game on Wednesday.

Napoli hit a mammoth homer off the Green Monster light stanchion to tie the game 3-all in the third, then gave Los Angeles a lead with his second homer before the Red Sox tied it 4-all in the fifth. It stayed that way until Napoli singled to lead off the 11th, went to second on Howie Kendrick’s sacrifice bunt and scored when Erick Aybar blooped a single to left-center.

Jered Weaver, making his first career relief appearance, pitched two scoreless innings for the win. Javier Lopez, the sixth Boston pitcher, took the loss.

Winners of a major-league-best 100 games in the regular season, Los Angeles was in danger of the shortest possible stay in the playoffs against the wild-card Red Sox. After losing the first two at home, the Angels came to Boston needing to beat Beckett, who has been virtually unbeatable in October.

But Beckett struggled, needing 30 pitches to get through the first half inning.