BOSTON — The situation was crying for a sacrifice bunt attempt.

The Sox, leading by 1-0, had runners at first and second with none out in the fourth.

The negative side of the situation for Boston was that two of the slowest runners in baseball were on base — Sean Casey at second and Jason Varitek at first. With those runners on base, it has to be an almost perfect bunt to move them up.

Fortunately for the Red Sox, though, the Orioles did not put on the “wheel” bunt defense play, which has the third baseman charge and the shortstop race over to cover third.

So when Alex Cora put down a bunt toward third, which was fielded by Melvin Mora, the Orioles’ third baseman had no other choice but to throw to first for the out. Had shortstop Freddie Bynum been on the move on the wheel play, Casey would have been a dead duck.

Instead, Casey safely made it to third, from where he ultimately scored on a fielder’s choice grounder, putting Boston on top, 2-0, and accounting for the game’s winning run.

A bad day for Bynum

It looked like the ugliest of errors, and it was ugly.

But there was an extenuating circumstance behind Bynum’s first-inning error, which helped the Red Sox take a 1-0 lead.

The one-out chopper by Dustin Pedroia, which appeared to be a routine bouncer, actually hit the lip of the grass as Bynum approached the ball. Bynum was charging and he was able to adjust in time to glove the ball, but his momentum was toward the infield, and the ball’s hitting the lip threw off his rhythm.

Bynum tried a flip throw on the move and fired it wildly past first. Pedroia was credited with an infield single and was awarded second when the ball went into the photographers’ pit.

Pedroia scored moments later on J.D. Drew’s double to left field.

Bynum had a tough day in the field. With the bases loaded and one out in the fourth, Pedroia hit a grounder toward the hole. While it was problematic as to whether the Orioles would have been able to turn an inning-ending double play on the ball, they lost all chance when Bynum bobbled the ball in his glove and double-clutched on his throw to second, where Baltimore had to settle for one out as Boston’s second run of the game crossed the plate.

Manny smacks a slider

It’s not accurate to say that Manny Ramirez has a slider-speed bat, that is, only enough bat speed to catch up to a slider and not a fastball.

Ramirez has shown on this homestand that there are times when he can get his mechanics sound, time a fastball and drive it, as he did in a key homer against the Twins on Tuesday night.

Yet the opposition continues to pound Ramirez with fastballs. The Orioles’ Daniel Cabrera, a right-hander, threw five pitches to Manny in the first — all fastballs — and walked him. In the second matchup, Cabrera’s first four pitches to Ramirez were fastballs, and the count was 2 and 2, the two strikes coming on pitches Ramirez fouled back.

Cabrera went for the slider on the 2-and-2 pitch, and Ramirez whacked it on the ground up the middle for a single off the glove of Bynum, who made a diving attempt to corral the ball and turn it into a force-out at second.

Then, in the fourth, with the bases loaded and two outs, Cabrera again went after Ramirez with fastballs. Ramirez looked at the first one (94 mph) for a strike, fouled back the second one (95) and chopped the third one (95) up the middle. Second baseman Brian Roberts ran down the bounce and threw out Ramirez at first, stranding the three runners and keeping Boston’s advantage at 2-0.

By the time Ramirez batted again in the sixth, he was facing a reliever, right-hander Dennis Sarfate.

Sarfate changed the pattern. He dropped in a curveball (78 mph) for a called strike on the first pitch. Ramirez fouled back a fastball (97) and then was mesmerized by another curveball (78) for a called strike three.

Drew too soon

Maybe Drew’s mind was on his first trip to the All-Star Game.

More likely, he just plain lost track of the outs.

With Drew at second and Manny Ramirez at first and one out in the first, Mike Lowell hit a semi-liner to center. The ball wasn’t a base hit off the bat, but Drew took off anyway, running hard to third. Baltimore center fielder Adam Jones came in and made a belt-high catch.

Drew slammed on the brakes in the base path with third-base coach DeMarlo Hale putting up the stop sign, but it was too late for Drew to retrace his steps and get back to second. He was doubled up, ending the threat.

Arm-mask collision

Varitek, the Red Sox’ catcher, wanted to pick off Adam Jones at first base in the third inning.

He didn’t get a chance to fire the ball to Sean Casey, though, because as he stood up, shifted his feet and cocked his arm to let it fly, his right elbow hit the mask of plate umpire Ted Barrett. That forced Varitek to hold the ball.

Varitek, however, managed to throw out Jones at second.

On the next pitch, Jones took off in an attempt to steal second. Varitek’s throw was accurate and in plenty of time to nail Jones, who had been successful in 8 of his previous 10 attempts this year. It was only the eighth base stealer Varitek had gunned down in 48 tries.

skrasner@projo.com