Considering the Red Sox managed just one run on eight hits in losing Games 1 and 2 at Angel Stadium, you'd think it would be too much of a stretch to suggest the old ballyard in Kenmore Square can be the intangible that turns this series around. The Red Sox simply aren't hitting. How is a change from gray uniforms to white and the watchful gaze of the Green Monster going to turn things around?

Yet the numbers do not lie, which is why the Fenway Factor must be taken into account today when stringbean righty Clay Buchholz takes the mound for the Red Sox .

Fact: The Red Sox were 56-25 at Fenway Park during the regular season, the second best home record in the majors. In only one other season since 1951 have the Red Sox had a better winning record at home. (That would be 1978, when the Sox went 59-23 at home, but at a time like this you're probably not going to have your spirits buoyed by comparisons to the ill-fated '78 Sox .)

And if you think Red Sox players are not about to use home-field advantage as a crutch going into Game 3, well, guess again.

``We love playing at Fenway Park,'' said first baseman Kevin Youkilis following the Sox' 4-1 loss to the Angels Friday night. ``It's our home crowd. It's where we play 81 games a year, and it's a comfort zone. You get to sleep in your own bed, and it's something you're accustomed to.

``It's never easy coming out (to California) and it's not easy playing on a different time schedule. When we come to the West Coast we struggle a little bit.''

When left fielder Jason Bay was asked about the comfort of dear, old Fenway, he said, ``Well, it's not comforting going down 0-2, that's for sure. But that's the position we're in. I guess if there's a silver lining, it's that we get to go home and hopefully force another game back (in Anaheim).''

Here's another silver lining: The Red Sox have staged some monumental postseason comebacks over the past 10 years, and all of them have had Fenway Park as their launching pad.

Let's begin with 1999, when the Red Sox lost the first two games of the ALDS to the Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field. The Sox came back to Fenway Park and won the next two games, including a 23-7 shellacking in Game 4, and then went back to Cleveland and rode the heroic relief pitching of Pedro Martinez to a 12-8 victory in Game 5.

In 2003, the Sox went out to Oakland and lost the first two games of the ALDS to the A's. Back at Fenway, the Sox tied the series with two straight victories. And then they finished off the A's with a 4-3 victory in Game 5.

Sox fans will always remember the 2004 AL Championship Series, when the Sox lost the first three games to the Yankees, including a 19-8 beating at Fenway. But then the Sox prevailed in Game 4 at Fenway, thanks to Dave Roberts' stolen base for the ages, and they won Game 5, also at Fenway, in 14 innings. Having gotten their groove back, the Sox marched into Yankee Stadium and claimed victories in Games 6 and 7 to complete the greatest postseason comeback in sports history.

And then there was 2007. Down 3-1 in the ALCS to the Indians, the Sox won Game 5 on the shores of Lake Erie and then came back to wonderful old Fenway to win the series with victories in Games 6 and 7.

True, the magic does not always work. Look back to 2005, when the Sox lost the first two games of the ALDS to the White Sox in Chicago. There was no magic for the Red Sox when they returned to Fenway: The White Sox completed the sweep with a 5-3 victory.

Overall, though, the history has been good. And Fenway has been good to the Red Sox .

Can it happen yet again?

The Red Sox' 2009 season is depending on it.

``We'll be back at Fenway and have the fans on our side,'' said second baseman Dustin Pedroia. ``And it'll be fun.''

How much fun Red Sox fans have today will be made known late this afternoon, when Game 3 is in the books and the masses are spilling out to Yawkey Way.

- sbuckley@bostonherald.com