BOSTON - The line - 9 innings, 4 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 8 strikeouts - would have been exceptional had it been the middle of August, or the end of May.

But this is October. And that puts what Josh Beckett did last night into a whole different category.

"I think every time Josh takes the ball, we feel like he has something special going," Kevin Youkilis said after Beckett had led the Red Sox to a 4-0 win over the Angels in Game One of the ALDS. "I think every time he touches the ball we know something good can happen, and with his past history, we feel real confident that he's going to pitch a great game. And he went out there [last night] and couldn't pitch much better."

"Even on TV," said designated hitter David Ortiz, who watched some of the game from the clubhouse, "he looked filthy."

The Red Sox have had some superlative postseason pitching performances in their history, many of them recently. Curt Schilling's two bloody-sock victories in 2004, one against the Yankees in the ALCS and the other against the Cardinals in the World Series. Pedro Martinez' heroics in the 1999 playoffs, when he no-hit the Indians in relief over the final six innings of Game Five of the ALDS and then pitched seven shutout innings, allowing only two hits and two walks with 12 strikeouts, in his conquest of Roger Clemens and the Yankees in Game Three of the ALCS.

And many of them not so recently. Bruce Hurst's four-hit, eight-inning shutout of the Mets in Game One of the 1986 World Series. Luis Tiant's five-hit blanking of the Reds in Game One of the 1975 Series. And, of course, there was Jim Lonborg, who came within five outs of a perfect game as he one-hit the Cardinals in Game Two of the 1967 Series and then followed that with a three-hitter in Game Five.

In terms of importance, last night really doesn't measure up to any of those. This is, after all, only the first game of the first series.

But that shouldn't diminish what Beckett accomplished last night. Regular-season complete games are rare enough - Beckett himself pitched only one this year, a 2-1 loss at Cleveland on July 25 - and they're even rarer in the playoffs, at least as far as the Red Sox are concerned. Their last one was in the 1995 ALDS, when Erik Hanson was beaten by the Indians in Game Two.

And postseason complete-game shutouts? No one in the majors had done it since the Dodgers' Jose Lima blanked the Cardinals in Game Three of the 2004 NLDS, and no one on the Red Sox had done it since Tiant in 1975.

It's an indication of what Beckett - who now has a 1.74 earned-run average in 51 2/3 postseason innings in his career with three shutouts - can do when the lights shine brightest.

"He acted like [he was familiar with big games],'' said manager Terry Francona. "He was in control of himself, of the game.

"That was a great performance.''