Text messages from press row . . .

BOSTON -- Isn’t the Boston Marathon usually contested in April? . . .

Erick Aybar and the Angels weren’t ready for the season to reach its finish line. . . .

Aybar, whose cousin Wil Aybar coaches the diving team at the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., provided the winning hit that kept the Angels from somersaulting into another off-season of second-guessing. . . .

Cool and crisp Sunday in Boston, it was a great night for football. . . .

The Angel who has shown up most prominently in October is power-hitting catcher Mike Napoli, who was born on Halloween. . . .

Speaking of which, who was that dressed Sunday in Josh Beckett’s uniform? . . .

Considering that Beckett was a shell of himself in Game 3, Mike Lowell can hardly move without wincing and American League most-valuable-player candidate Dustin Pedroia is still looking for his first hit, it’s a wonder the Red Sox lead the series. . . .

The only reason for Red Sox fans to celebrate early this morning was that, for the first time in the series, a game ended before 1 a.m. EDT. . . .

Still, it ended long after midnight. . . .

Is anyone at TBS concerned about the late endings? . . .

Jacoby Ellsbury, whose three-run single gave the Red Sox a short-lived lead in Game 3, is a former Pacific 10 Conference co-player of the year from Oregon State and is believed to be the first Native American of Navajo descent to play in the majors. . . .

Ellsbury, 25, left Oregon State in 2005, a year before the Beavers won the first of their two consecutive College World Series championships. . . .

Based on a formula devised by statistics guru Bill James, USA Today on the eve of the playoffs ran a chart in which Chicago Cubs-killer James Loney of the Dodgers was listed as the 10th-worst clutch hitter in baseball. . . .

Lou Piniella might disagree. . . .

As those signs in Wrigley Field said, “It’s gonna happen.” . . .

But not for the Cubs. . . .

Just like last year, every division series stood at 2-0 before the weekend. . . .

Russell Martin and the Dodgers, who could wind up playing the Tampa Bay Rays in the World Series on the tattered carpet at Tropicana Field, are one of eight major league teams that did not play a game on artificial turf this season. . . .

The Toronto Blue Jays and Minnesota Twins are the only other teams that still play home games on synthetic turf, and the Dodgers haven’t played on the faux grass since June 2007, when they lost two of three games at Tampa Bay. . . .

The carpet at the Rays’ home, by the way, looks so ratty that, were you to encounter it in a hotel room, you’d turn on your heels and check out. . . .

Not that the Angels were being summarily dismissed as the American League division series shifted to Boston for Game 3, but Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe started clamoring for a Dodgers-Red Sox World Series after Game 2, writing, “It’s the only way for this goofy baseball year to play out.” . . .

Shaughnessy, by the way, described Manny Ramirez as “the most popular Southern California athlete since Shaquille O’Neal.” . . .

What about Kobe Bryant? . . .

Speaking of the Lakers, a clean-shaven Phil Jackson looks years younger as he embarks on his ninth season with Jerry Buss’ purple and gold crew, a grind that might not bring the Zen Master his 10th championship ring but almost certainly will yield his 1,000th NBA coaching victory. . . .

By midseason, in all probability, Jackson will have won more games with Bryant than he did with Michael Jordan. . . .

Of course, it should be noted Jordan sat out nearly two full seasons during Jackson’s nine-year, six-title run with the Chicago Bulls. . . .

Noting that four penalty flags were thrown during the overtime kickoff return in last Monday’s Pittsburgh Steelers-Baltimore Ravens game, ESPN’s Ron Jaworski quipped, “Two more flags, you would have had an amusement park.” . . .

On Friday, a 4-year-old colt co-owned by Joe Torre won a claiming race at Santa Anita, on Saturday the Dodgers wrapped up their sweep of the Cubs and on Sunday a 2-year-old colt co-owned by Torre won a stakes race at Belmont Park. . . .

Today, you might see Torre buying a lottery ticket.

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jerome.crowe@latimes.com