Duchscherer shuts down the Red Sox

OAKLAND -- Justin Duchscherer was in a playful clubhouse stare down with teammate Donnie Murphy before the game when the pitcher joked about throwing a no-hitter as Boston’s Jon Lester had.

A few hours later, Duchscherer nearly did it.

He took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning, Ryan Sweeney homered and the Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-0, Saturday night for their first series win in their last five.

“I said, ‘Those guys don’t want none of me today [because] I’m going to pull a Lester on [them],’ ” Duchscherer recalled with a grin. “In the sixth inning, I was thinking, ‘Did I really say that before the game?’ ”

Duchscherer -- who received some of his early professional pitching training in the Red Sox farm system -- out-dueled Josh Beckett and had a perfect game going into the sixth before he plunked Jason Varitek to start the inning.

David Ortiz broke up the no-hitter with a single up the middle with one out in the seventh and Duchscherer said he was “a little deflated.”

Duchscherer struck out four and didn’t issue a walk in eight innings, yielding only the one hit.