ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Too bad there's already a television show called "Heroes."

Because that's a perfect title for the three-plus-hour baseball special the Boston Red Sox put on Wednesday night.

And, if you didn't stay up to watch it, well, I'm here to tell you it would have been worth being bleary-eyed this morning.

The local nine's list of heroes in their 4-1 win over the Angels is almost as long as Terry Francona's lineup card, which had Jacoby Ellsbury batting leadoff.

Want to put the kid centerfielder in the same position on the list of heroes of Game 1 of the ALDS?

You could, considering that he had three hits, stole two bases, drove in a run, scored a run, was on base five times and, just to show he's not all about offense, made a running -- as only he can -- sliding grab of Mark Teixeira's leadoff blooper in the bottom of the eighth, when the Sox were clinging to a one-run lead.

But that wouldn't really be fair to Jon Lester. Or Jason Bay. Or Kevin Youkilis. Any one of whom could lay claim to top billing. And closer Jonathan Papelbon, who fanned three batters in the ninth, certainly is worth a mention.

What's also worth mentioning is that your defending world champion Boston Red Sox now have won eight straight postseason games, dating back to the start of their comeback from a three-games-to-one deficit in the ALCS against Cleveland last October.

And they continue to bedevil the Angels in the postseason. They've now won 10 straight over the Halos, beginning with Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS and including a three-game sweep last season in the ALDS.

The winning pitcher last night was Lester, and if ever a guy deserved a "W" it was the 24-year-old who beat cancer two years ago and came back last October to beat the Rockies in the fourth and deciding game of the World Series.

Josh Beckett, who was literally unbeatable last year in the postseason -- going 4-0 with a 1.20 ERA in 30 innings -- had originally been slated to start Game 1 for Boston, but that plan was scratched when he strained an oblique muscle last Friday.

Instead, Francona gave the ball to Lester. Which is like deciding to drive your Ferrari because your Porsche is in the shop for a tuneup.

All Lester did was limit the Angels to one unearned run on six hits over seven innings, while striking out seven -- including all three batters in the sixth, after Boston had taken a 2-1 lead in the top of the inning on Bay's two-run homer deep to left -- and walking only one.

"He's having a terrific year," Mike Scioscia, the duly impressed Angels manager, said of Lester. "He's got a great arm. Certainly, his velocity was up a bit from when we had seen him early in the year, and he was able to get the fastball on both sides of the plate."

"He's an ace," said Boston's second baseman, Dustin Pedroia, who's a legitimate candidate to be the American League's MVP. "We've got Josh and Dice-K, but Jon has been the guy we've gone to all year. He was still throwing 95 in the seventh inning. He gets stronger as the game goes on."

As well as he was pitching, Lester was in danger of becoming a hard-luck loser until Bay, who looked overmatched while striking out in his first two at-bats against Angels starter John Lackey, went yard with two outs in the sixth and Youkilis on first.

"That was a bomb," Youkilis said. "It was great to see Jason hit that ball."

One of the great things about it was that it came after Manny Ramirez, whose place Bay took in left field for Boston on Aug. 1, had homered to help the Dodgers beat the Cubs in the opening game of their NLDS.

"Jason's not trying to be Manny Ramirez," Pedroia said. "He's just trying to be Jason Bay. That's all we ask of him. Since day one, when he put on the uniform, he's played hard. He's a run producer."

Perhaps there's a producer up the road in L.A. who'd prefer to call this Red Sox highlight film "Bay Watch."

What? That's already been taken, too? Too bad.

In the end, it was defense that won the game for Boston.

Leading off the bottom of the eighth against rookie reliever Justin Masterson, Teixeira hit a soft fly to shallow center.

"It looked like it was in no-man's land," Francona said.

Nobody but Ellsbury could have gotten to it. Not that anybody thought he was going to.

"I really didn't think he had any chance to catch that ball," said Francona.

But Ellsbury did catch it, snaring it in the webbing as he slid to the ground.

"I got a good jump on the ball," he said. "I wasn't sure I could get to it. I was fortunate to hold on to it."

It was a good thing he did, because Vladimir Guerrero followed with a single, then Torii Hunter blooped a ball down the first-base line that fell just beyond the reach of the diving Youkilis.

Seeing the ball hit the ground, Guerrero headed for third, only to be gunned down by Youkilis, who made a perfect throw to Mike Lowell.

"I was screaming the whole time," Pedroia said, "because I saw Vlad head for third. Youk made a great play. He popped to his feet, fired and made a perfect throw. That was a huge momentum play. It changed the game for us."

Having frustrated the Angels in the eighth, the Sox scored a pair of insurance runs in the ninth -- Ellsbury driving in one with his third hit of the game, and David Ortiz bringing home the other with his first -- after which Papelbon came out of the bullpen and struck out three of the four batters he faced.

It was, all in all, a heroic effort on the part of New England's hardball heroes.