OAKLAND – The good news is that the Boston Red Sox’ injury-caused watered-down offense finally managed to dent home plate last night.

Once.

And once was not enough as the Red Sox’ slide continued in a 2-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics at the Oakland Coliseum.

Oakland managed only seven hits, but the Athletics were resourceful enough with their hits to hand the Red Sox their 11th loss in the last 13 games and 13th in the last 16, deepening an August swoon that has stretched to 20 defeats in 28 games.

Boston is 2-6 on this road trip with only today’s matinee remaining. And the Red Sox have scored only 17 runs in the eight games in falling a season-high 7 ½ games (9 in the loss column) behind the New York Yankees in the American League East. They remain a distant third in the wild-card chase, six behind Chicago.

Last night’s setback was pinned on Josh Beckett, but he deserved a better fate.

Beckett, who had to leave his previous start after six-plus innings because of a cut on his right middle finger, threw 104 pitches in seven strong innings, allowing only two runs on five hits. And he finished up strong, whiffing Marco Scutaro and Mark Ellis with runners at first and second in squirming out of a seventh-inning jam.

But the Sox are punchless these days, so Beckett’s record fell to 14-9. Boston, of course, is missing starters David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon and Alex Gonzalez.

“We’re just having a real tough time mounting much offense right now,” sighed manager Terry Francona.

Boston was stifled last night by Kirk Saarloos (7-6) for 6 1/3 innings, nicking him for their only run in the first two games of the series. Eric Hinske delivered that run with a 3-hopper up the middle after a two-out, opposite-field double lofted down the right-field line by Kevin Youkilis.

“He threw two-seamers down with very good movement, and he turned over his changeup, and we weren’t able to make any adjustments,” said Francona.

Obviously, the margin for error is very small these days for the pitching staff as Beckett noticed.

He beat himself up for a “dumb” pitch to Eric Chavez, which was clubbed for a two-out RBI double in the fourth. And he wasn’t thrilled with the pitch he threw to Ellis that the Oakland second baseman was able to sky to right for a sacrifice fly after Scutaro had tripled past Hinske in right-center.

“We gotta win,” said Beckett, who buckled DH Frank Thomas’s knees with breaking balls for a pair of called third strikes. “It doesn’t matter how we do it. It’s tough when you’re missing one-third of the lineup or more. It seems like every break is going against us right now.”

One of those breaks occurred on Chavez’s run-scoring double. He managed to climb the ladder for a high-and-outside fastball at about 95-96 miles an hour and crush it to left.

“I thought I had it, but that ball carried better than any ball (all series),” said Youkilis, who played left field for the third straight game. “It hit over my head. The only reason I know is that I heard it hit the scoreboard. That guy’s gotta be strong to go (opposite-field) with no effort like that.”

No one, meanwhile, could complain about the Sox’ effort. They’re overmatched at the plate, with a lineup that features absolutely no power threat. But they’re hustling.

There was no better illustration of that than a play in the eighth inning, when Youkilis and shortstop Alex Cora combined to cut down a run at the plate.

On a 3-and-2 pitch, with Mark Kotsay running from first on the pitch, Thomas crushed a pitch from Manny Delcarmen into the gap in left-center. Youkilis raced over and cut the ball off with a sliding stop, quickly got up and fired a strike to Cora, the relay man.

Cora turned and fired a one-hop strike to catcher Doug Mirabelli, who slapped the tag on the sliding Kotsay for a well-executed out that kept the game at 2-1.

“We’re major league players out here,” said Youkilis. “We’re all here for a reason. We have to go out and make major league plays. We’re trying as hard as we can.”

That play gave the Red Sox a chance, down only one run in the ninth. But to this team, one run looks like 100.

And Justin Duchscherer set the Sox down in order in the ninth on a popup to short and two strikeouts, boosting Oakland’s lead in the A.L. West to 7 ½ games over the Angels while Boston’s free-fall continued.

skrasner@projo.com / (401) 277-7340