BACK FROM THE BRINK; BOSTON WINS LAST 3 TO BEAT CLEVELAND IN 5 : BOSTON 12 CLEVELAND 8.

Byline: Tom Withers Associated Press 

With Boston counted out and supposedly cursed, Pedro Martinez brought the Red Sox all the way back.

After dropping the first two games of the series, losing Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra to injuries, the Red Sox outslugged the Cleveland Indians 12-8 Monday night to win Game 5 of their first-round playoff and advance to the AL championship series.

Martinez struck out eight in six hitless innings of surprise relief and Troy O'Leary twice thwarted the Indians' strategy to intentionally walk Garciaparra by hitting two homers and driving in seven runs.

``I wouldn't come out,'' Martinez said. ``As long as I was able to throw the ball over the plate, I was going to stay in there.''

With the shocking win, the Red Sox earned a shot at their hated rival, the Yankees, in the ALCS starting Wednesday night at New York.

It was too early for manager Jimy Williams to begin worrying about pitching matchups.

``Who we going to pitch?'' he said out loud. ``What day is it?''

O'Leary, who went 0 for 6 in Game 4, hit a grand slam in the third and snapped an 8-8 tie in the seventh with a three-run homer as the Red Sox became the fifth major-league team to rally from an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five series.

Boston, which hasn't won a World Series since 1918, looked through after losing Games 1 and 2. And when Martinez pulled himself from his start in the opener after four innings with a strained muscle in his back, the Red Sox season appeared doomed.

It got worse for the Red Sox when Garciaparra was unable to go in Game 3 because of an injured wrist. But they pounced on Cleveland's shaky pitching staff, scoring nine runs in Game 3 before shattering records with their 23-7 rout in Game 4.

But Martinez brought some sanity to a series of atrocious pitching, striking out seven to put an exclamation point on one his dominating 1999 season. The right-hander, who went 23-4 during the regular season, will now get a chance to pitch the Red Sox back to the World Series for the first time since 1986.

Meanwhile, the Indians, who have been waiting since 1948 to win a Series, were denied a third straight trip to the ALCS when their pitching staff collapsed.

Jim Thome homered twice and Travis Fryman hit a solo shot for the Indians, who will now spend the winter wondering why they could never shake an injury bug that plagued them all season. Cleveland, which lost Game 3 starter Dave Burba to injury, also watched center fielder Kenny Lofton dislocate his left shoulder sliding into first base.

Cleveland's offseason could also include the sale of a team that has won five straight AL Central titles but has yet to win the biggest one.

With the score 8-8 in the seventh, O'Leary made the Indians pay for electing to walk Garciaparra again.

Facing loser Paul Shuey, John Valentin singled and, after a forceout, Indians manager Mike Hargrove decided to walk Garciaparra, who killed Cleveland pitching all season. And for the second time, the strategy blew up in Hargrove's face, with O'Leary hitting Shuey's first pitch over the right-field wall for an 11-8 lead.

Given the cushion, Martinez took the Red Sox home from there, striking out Omar Vizquel for the final out to give Boston its first win in a postseason series since 1986.

Martinez crouched at the edge of the mound and was hugged by catcher Jason Varitek as the Red Sox poured onto the field to celebrate a series that three days earlier they couldn't have imagined winning.

O'Leary's slam, the first in Boston postseason history, helped Boston overcome a 5-2 deficit in the third off starter Charles Nagy, who was pitching on three days' rest for the second time in his career. Nagy intentionally walked Garciaparra and grooved a fastball that O'Leary hit over the wall in right-center.

But the Indians answered against Derek Lowe in the bottom half, getting an RBI double from Manny Ramirez, who had been hitless in his first 17 at-bats of the series with seven strikeouts. Thome then connected for his second homer of the game for an 8-7 lead.

BACK IN THE HUNT

A list of comebacks from 0-2 deficits in 5-game playoff series:

American League

1982 - Milwaukee def. California, championship series.

1995 - Seattle def. New York, division series

1999 - Boston def. Cleveland, division series.

National League

1981 - Dodgers def. Houston, divisional playoff.

1984 - San Diego def. Chicago, championship series.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

PHOTO (1 -- color) Troy O'Leary provided the big punches for Boston, hitting a grand slam in the third inning and the game-winning a 3-run home run in the seventh.

Jim Davis/Associated Press

(2) Boston pitcher Pedro Martinez pitched six shutout innings of relief and now leads his team into the ALCS against the Yankees.

Jim Mone/Associated Press

BOX: Back in the hunt (see text)