Eric Aybar knocked in Mike Napoli with the winning run, and the Angels beat Boston, 5-4, in Game 3 of the American League Division Series.

The series resumes Monday in Boston. Game time is scheduled for 5:37 p.m.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia has made similar comments about his team (which finished with the best record in either league) as they’ve fallen down 0-2 to the Boston Red Sox.

But he bristled in the interview room Sunday afternoon when a reporter asked if there was something to explain that commonality between the Cubs and Angels.

“Well, first of all, we’re not getting eliminated tonight so I’m not going to answer that question, ” Sciosica said. “We’ll talk about that if it comes up because we’re not going to talk about it now.”

The reporter tried to restate his question, emphasizing that he was asking about the way the two teams had played - not about the Angels being all but eliminated.

“We’re not getting eliminated tonight,” Scioscia said. “We’ll talkabout it at some point.”

After the interview session ended, Scioscia smiled as he made a point of telling the reporter it was “a good question - but I’m not answering it.”

The Angels’ 3-4-5 hitters (Teixeira, Guerrero, Hunter) are batting .609 (14 for 23) in this series. But the 6-through-9 hitters are 2 for 31 (.065).

TODAY’S LINEUP:

3B Chone Figgins

LF Garret Anderson

1B Mark Teixeira (5 for 7 in first two playoff games — but all singles)

DH Vladimir Guerrero (1 RBI in past 15 playoff games)

CF Torii Hunter (.357 hitter in 18 career ALDS games)

RF Juan Rivera

C  Mike Napoli

2B Howie Kendrick

SS Erick Aybar

LHP Joe Saunders (4-0, 2.89 in six career starts vs. Boston)

Kendrick has struggled badly, going 0 for 9 with five strikeouts and stranding 13 baserunners.

Hunter has taken on the role of mentor to Kendrick this season. He would only talk in general terms Saturday about their conversation but acknowledged that Kendrick is beating himself up over his failure in those potential run-producing situations.

“He might be. You can tell. There’s no secret,” Hunter said. “I tried to give him some words of encouragement, tell him it (the postseason) is the same game. It’s just the extra hype, the media, that has changed, the energy from the fans.

“It’s the same baseball game. You have to play your game.”

Angels manager Mike Scioscia gave Kendrick another vote of confidence Saturday.

“I think there’s bumps in the road for every player,” Scioscia said. “But this guy can hit. He needs to plow through this.”

He might do his plowing a little lower in the lineup. Scioscia said the first through fifth spots would be unchanged for Game 3 but he might make a “little adjustment” in the bottom half of the order.

Juan Rivera will start in right field again and Mike Napoli will be back at catcher. Kendrick (who batted sixth in Game 1, seventh in Game 2) could slip down in the order again and bat eighth.

Hunter injured his knee when he jumped in frustration over a close call that went against him at first base in the third inning of Game 2. Angels manager Mike Scioscia banned him from batting practice during the team’s light workout at Fenway Park Saturday but Hunter said he would be ready to play Sunday.

“I’m good. I’ll be in there,” he said. “On our flight, I was icing the whole time. We kept icing it every hour and we were in the air for five hours.

“It feels pretty good. If it didn’t, I’d still be in there.”

He went 4 for 15 in six games during the final days of the season – and would gladly trade those four hits for just one now.

In the first two games of the ALDS against the Boston Red Sox, Kendrick has gone 0 for 9 with five strikeouts (four in five at-bats Friday). In six of those at-bats, he came up with runners on base – 13 in all. He failed to even advance a runner, let alone drive one in.

“I’m just trying to do a little too much,” Kendrick said. “I’ve got to relax and play the game.

“It’s the same game. That’s the one thing I’m not realizing too well.”

Kendrick said he has been guilty of “jumping” at pitches and getting himself out.

“I’m seeing a steady diet of breaking balls,” he said. “I can hit them but I have to make them bring them up (into the strike zone). Right now, they’re throwing the ball down and I’m chasing them. As long as I’m chasing them, they’re going to keep throwing them.”

Angels manager Mike Scioscia said he has no plans to bench Kendrick for Game 3.

“No, Howie’s playing,” Scioscia said. “He was swinging the bat well the last week of the season. He’ll be fine.”

Upset over a close call at first base, Angels centerfielder Torii Hunter leapt into the air in frustration, spinning around toward umpire Kerwin Danley – and then crumpled to the ground, reaching for his left knee.

“It buckled on me,” Hunter said later.

“That’s scary,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “This guy’s an important part of everything we’re doing out there on the field.”

“I didn’t actually see it,” Angels third baseman Chone Figgins said. “But I heard the crowd get quiet.”

After back-to-back two-out singles by Mark Teixeira and Vladimir Guerrero in the third, Hunter came up as the tying run with a chance to wipe out the early advantage the Red Sox had taken.

He hit a ground ball to shortstop Alex Cora and ran hard down the line but Danley called Hunter out on a very close play, prompting Hunter’s airborne response.

“At the time, the adrenaline is flowing,” Hunter said. “I’m pretty pumped up. I’m an intense player. I play the game like a football player.

“It was a bang-bang play and it’s pretty deflating to have it go against you.”

After several nervous moments for the Angels, Hunter got up and eventually walked gingerly out to his position in center field for the next inning.

“Right now, it looks like it’s just a bit of a tweak, nothing more than a little hyperextension and he’ll be able to play Sunday,” Scioscia said.

Hunter stayed in the game but appeared to be running at less than full strength at times. He misplayed Mark Kotsay’s drive for an error in the sixth inning – Hunter’s first error in an Angels uniform. He went errorless in 137 games (354 chances) during the regular season.

“I’ll be fine,” Hunter said. “Adrenaline is all the medicine I need.”

Here’s the link.

The Angels revived one element of their 2002 post-season magic, passing out ThunderStix to the sellout crowd for Game 2 of their American League Division Series Friday night.

But in the end, the Boston Red Sox found another way to leave the Angels feeling deflated, letting them crawl back from a first-inning four-spot to tie the game only to lose in the ninth inning, 7-5, on J.D. Drew’s two-run home run off Francisco Rodriguez.

Read Plunkett’s story here.

“I think when you can do it, it’s much better to stay home in your own bed,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of opting against the ‘red-eye’ approach.

Apparently, that wasn’t good enough for Cubs manager Lou Piniella.

According to colleague Tony Jackson of the L.A. Daily News, the Cubs consulted a “sleep doctor” before deciding to take the same approach. They flew to Los Angeles Friday rather than immediately following their Game 2 debacle at Wrigley Field Thursday night.

“He said we should stay overnight tonight instead of travel after the ballgame … so that everybody can get their full balance of sleep as opposed to sleeping all day tomorrow (the off day Friday) and not being able to sleep the night after,” Piniella said. “We’ll see if he is right or not after the third game.”

Both the Angels and Cubs could be catching up on their sleep real soon. The Angels trail the Red Sox, 5-3, through five innings of Game 2 and are in danger of joining the Cubs in dropping the first two games of their Division Series at home.

Only one team in the best-of-five format has lost the first two games at home and came back to win the series — the 2001 New York Yankees (against the Oakland A’s).