Oakland Tightens Up Two Races

Curt Schilling had a setback as the pennant race is heating up. Joe Blanton is hitting his stride.

Both of them have some work to do to get there.

Blanton gave Oakland another strong outing, holding Boston to two runs over 6 1/3 innings Thursday night, and the Athletics took advantage of Schilling’s early troubles to beat the Red Sox, 6-2, and tighten two pennant races at once.

“If we don’t play well, we’re not going to get to the playoffs and we won’t play deep into October,” Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon said. “It’s ours to lose. There’s a lot of teams fighting for spots.”

One of them is Oakland, which moved into a first-place tie in the West with the Angels, who lost to Detroit, 8-6, later Thursday. Boston’s lead in the East was cut to 1 1/2 games over the Yankees, who beat Tampa Bay, 9-5; New York had not been that close since Aug. 29.

“We’re still on top,” said Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz, who had his major league-leading 131st run batted in with a sacrifice fly in the sixth. “The problem is when you go under.”

Mark Kotsay singled in two runs before Schilling (6-8) recorded his first out, and Mark Ellis had three hits and drove in a pair of runs for Oakland. Blanton (10-11) gave up two runs and six hits and two walks while striking out three.

Before giving up four runs in his last outing, Blanton had given up two or fewer in nine consecutive starts.

Schilling gave up a double and two singles on his first five pitches, then gave up another run on three straight singles in the second inning before settling down. In all, he gave up four runs and 11 hits, with three walks and three strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings.

It was the fewest strikeouts Schilling had in a start this year and a step back from what the Red Sox had hoped was a breakout outing Saturday, when he went a season-high eight innings to beat the Yankees. He flailed his arms in anger when Manager Terry Francona came out of the dugout, though the pitcher said he was mad at himself.

“I was just frustrated with the whole situation,” Schilling said.