BOSTON –– As what’s become an all-too-familiar clubhouse celebration scene unfolded around him late Monday night, Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett wore a rare smile as he clutched a bottle of Korbel champagne.

Beckett was marveling at his team’s grit and resiliency, two traits that stood out not only in a 3-2 win in Game Four of the A.L. Division Series but throughout a 3-1 series victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

“They’re a really good baseball team,” Beckett said of the Angels. “On (Sunday) we go 12 innings and lose. Tonight’s (Monday night’s) game was the most critical game of the series and it’s 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth. They’re really close games. We couldn’t be more evenly matched.”

In the end, however, the Sox are moving on and the 100-win Angels are going home. Boston has now knocked L.A. out of the playoffs three times in the last six seasons. If the next two rounds of baseball’s playoffs are as exciting and well-played as this ALDS was, Red Sox fans had best brew plenty of coffee and reupholster their favorite chairs.

Here are a few items to ponder as the Sox prepare for a trip to Tampa Bay for Games One and Two of the ALCS Friday and Saturday.

•It’s a good thing Mike Scioscia isn’t working in New England. With one out and a runner on third base in the ninth inning, the Angels’ manager decided that a suicide squeeze was his team’s best route to a run. That’s called a high-risk move and when Erick Aybar couldn’t bunt a 96-mph fastball thrown by Manny Delcarmen, the choice backfired. Jason Varitek took the pitch and chased Reggie Willits back to third base, lunging at the end to tag him for a huge out.

The play will sting for days in Southern California. If this ever occurred in these parts, Scioscia would have some serious ’splaining to do. “If it works,” said the Angels’ Mark Teixeira, “it’s a great play. If it doesn’t, it’s tough to swallow.”

•Red Sox fans must’ve seen a few Grady Little flashbacks when Terry Francona chose to lift John Lester after 109 pitches and seven innings of stellar shutout baseball. The Sox bullpen quickly blew Lester’s 2-0 lead when Justin Masterson issued a walk, uncorked a hot fastball that confused Varitek for a big passed ball and then allowed Torii Hunter to line a two-out single to right that tied the score at 2-2.

Francona said that as Lester came off the mound after retiring his seventh straight Angel to close the seventh inning, the pitcher’s body language told him that “in his mind that was his last hitter.” Lester didn’t push pitching coach John Farrell to return to the mound, according to Francona, but that may simply be due to his inexperience. How he handles a similar situation against Tampa, or potentially in the World Series, will be interesting.

•As the bullpen melted down, it’s clear that bridging the gap from the starters to closer Jonathan Papelbon is Francona’s real challenge with his pitching staff. He’s placed a huge load on the shoulders of Masterson, a rookie who began the season as a prized starter in Double A. Now he’s pitching to Vladimir Guerrero and Hunter with the Sox’ season on the line. How Masterson, Delcarmen and Hideki Okajima hold up under pressure will likely decide the team’s fate.

• While Boston’s bullpen needs to be watched closely, Tampa’s is receiving rave reviews. Francona has called the group the best in baseball. Warwick native Dan Wheeler plays a huge role, along with Grant Balfour, J.P. Howell and Chad Bradford. The regular-season closer, Troy Percival, is out with tightness in his back, but the Rays haven’t skipped a beat.

• The Dodgers-Phillies matchup in the National League may be headlined by Manny Ramirez and Ryan Howard, but the Red Sox-Rays may just be your World Series. The A.L. teams boast deeper pitching staffs and dangerous lineups and they’re both playing very well at the right time of the season. In three of the last four Series, the A.L. team has won in a sweep. No one is saying L.A. or Philly is that soft, but their pitching staffs look quite thin.

•The Red Sox worked on their starting rotation for the ALCS and will release that information today. First off, the Sox will need a Game Four starter. Francona needs to decide if Tim Wakefield or Paul Byrd will be the man, and he’s likely leaning toward Wakefield because Byrd seems a better fit out of the bullpen. The Sox can keep their three leading starters in order and pitch Daisuke Matsuzaka in Game One, Beckett in Game Two and Lester in Game Three at Fenway, where he’s 11-1 with a 2.35 ERA. That order would slot Beckett and Lester into Games Six and Seven in Tampa.

•It’s only frustration talking, but Angels starter John Lackey embarrassed himself when he shot his mouth off in the clubhouse Monday night, telling reporters that the Red Sox “are not better than us this year.”

He went on to say that in Game Three, Boston “scored on a pop fly they called a hit, which is a joke,” and in the close-out game Monday “they scored on a broken-bat grounder and a fly ball (off the Green Monster) that’s an out anywhere else in America. And [Dustin Pedroia] is standing out on second base like he did something great.”

Great quote, sore sport. It hurts to lose in the playoffs, something Red Sox fans know all too well. But of late the Sox aren’t doing much losing. They’ve won nine of their last 10 playoff games and 25 of the previous 35 stretching back to the 2004 playoffs. That’s a lot of winning and the 2008 Sox think they have more victories left in their tank.

kmcnamar@projo.com