BALTIMORE -- When you’re not scoring runs, your pitchers can’t allow them.

That’s exactly what the bullpen was able to do for Boston Friday night as the Red Sox defeated the Orioles 5-2 in a 4- hour-and 49-minute marathon that needed 13 innings to play here at Orioles Park at Camden Yards.

Entering the 13th, the Red Sox had scored a total of only five runs in the previous 43 innings of this current road trip. Not a very flattering statistic. But they broke their offensive slump by scoring three unearned runs for the victory.

After Manny Ramirez, who is still one homer shy of 500 for his career, reached on an error and advanced to second on the same play, Mike Lowell provided the game-winning hit. The Sox then pushed across two more before Jonathan Papelbon earned his 15th save of the season.

"This feels a lot better than losing," said Lowell. "Our bullpen did a great job . . . [The pitching staff giving] up only two runs in 13 innings is a pretty good job."

The score was knotted at 2-2 from the fourth inning on and, after Josh Beckett [six innings, two runs, four hits, three walks, 10 strikeouts] was lifted, the bullpen put up enough zeros to allow the offense to finally do something in the end.

Manager Terry Francona used a total of six relievers: Hideki Okajima, Manny Delcarmen, Javier Lopez, Craig Hansen, Mike Timlin (who got the win and is now 3-3) and Papelbon.

"I think both the bullpens did a really good job," said Beckett. "I was obviously happy with the way our guys [pitched], but they had some guys do some good things, too."

The Red Sox needed their ace to come though in a big way.

Early yesterday afternoon Boston placed Daisuke Matsuzaka on the 15-day disabled list because of a mild rotator-cuff strain, so Beckett wanted to give the Sox something to be happy about during this tough three-city, 10-game road trip.

"They made him work," said Francona. "He’s facing a lineup that pretty much, one through nine, has faced him a lot. They made him work and he was able to pitch out of a big jam late" -- in the sixth inning, he walked the bases loaded after striking out the first two batters of the inning, but then struck out Adam Jones to end the threat -- "and they made him throw a lot of pitches. Other than the home run and the other run early, he kept them at bay.

"That was good, because after we scored those two runs [in the first inning] it took us about 4 1/2 hours to get another one."

This victory was key for the struggling Sox, and even though Francona always talks about living and playing for that day only, everyone in the clubhouse after the game was relieved.

"This was a big win," said Julio Lugo. "We needed it. Definitely we needed it."