BOSTON — Coco Crisp was on first base with two outs in the seventh and the score 3-3.

He stayed put as Rob Bell, working from the stretch, made his first pitch to Eric Hinske.

After the pitch, first-base coach Luis Alicea walked up to Crisp and told him how long it took Bell to deliver the ball to the plate out of the stretch. It was a time high enough for Crisp to attempt a stolen base.

“He’s 1.66 (seconds) to the plate,” said Alicea to Crisp.

So on Bell’s next pitch to Hinske, Crisp took off, and he easily beat the throw from catcher Paul Bako for his second stolen base of the game and his 20th of the season.

“With Coco, we like him to go when (the opposing pitcher) is 1.35 or so,” said Alicea.

That steal set in motion the Sox’ game-winning four-run flurry in the inning.

With first base open, Baltimore manager Dave Trembley had Bell intentionally walk Hinske, bringing up Doug Mirabelli, whose soft single to center off the end of the bat gave him some personal redemption and put the Red Sox on top, 4-3. And before the O’s could notch the final out, Boston had a commanding 7-3 advantage.

Crisp also stole on Baltimore starter Jeremy Guthrie, whom Alicea timed at 1.29 on the pitch before Crisp was able to swipe second base in the second inning.

“He got a great jump on that one,” said Alicea.

Improper technique

While Mirabelli made up for his baffling baserunning gaffe in the sixth by delivering a tie-breaking single in the seventh, his technique in catching a popup wasn’t at all fundamentally sound, even if he was successful in his mission in the fifth.

The score was 3-3 with a runner at second and two outs when the Orioles’ Nick Markakis lofted a popup in front of home plate.

Mirabelli, the Sox’ backup catcher, whipped off his mask as he tracked the ball, but never discarded the mask, as is the prescribed method. Nor did he have the time to find the ball and turn his back to the field, accounting for the spin that would take the ball back toward him if he had been in that position.

Instead, with his mask in his right hand, Mirabelli lunged for the ball and made a difficult one-handed grab with the ball moving away from him, ending the inning.

Kids, if you were watching this at home, don’t try it the Mirabelli way.

Oh, and one other thing, kids, regarding Mirabelli’s play yesterday.

If you’re on third base with less than two outs and your teammate hits a fly ball about 400 feet, stand on third base, watch the ball go into the outfielder’s glove, count to three and then run home because there’s no way, no matter how slow you are, that they’ll be able to throw you out if you don’t fall down between third and home.

Millar wins, loses

Kevin Millar gave former teammate Tim Wakefield quite a battle in the second inning.

After the count went to 1 and 2, Millar kept fouling off pitches. Wakefield tried knucklers, and Millar would get a piece of them and foul them off. Wakefield tried back-to-back fastballs, and Millar fouled those off, too.

Finally, on the 13th pitch of the at-bat, with count at 2 and 2, Wakefield, whose knuckleballs were fluttering to the plate at 67-68 mph , tried something different. He threw a changeup knuckler, floating one in at 57 mph.

Millar was able to stay back long enough to dunk a single into center, winning the protracted battle on the humid 94-degree afternoon.

But all of the good work done by Millar was undone by the next batter, Miguel Tejada, who rapped the first pitch he saw on the ground to shortstop Alex Cora, who started a double play. Four pitches (and a strikeout) later, Wakefield was back in the dugout, cooling off.

Wakefield got the better of Millar in their second confrontation, retiring him on one pitch on a foul popup to third.

Home-field advantage

The home-field advantage extended into the Baltimore dugout for the Red Sox yesterday.

Dustin Pedroia lofted a first-pitch popup toward the Orioles’ dugout on the third-base side.

Baltimore third baseman Aubrey Huff, battling the sun, sidled over for the ball, tip-toeing near the top step of the dugout, a foot or so from a TV camera, positioned one step below.

As Huff began to reach for the ball, the camera swung away from Huff, the cameraman clearly trying to get it out of the fielder’s way. The movement seemed to distract Huff.

Huff missed the ball. It landed on the top step, giving Pedroia life. He wound up drawing a walk. The Sox, though, left him stranded at first.

Payton’s place

Jay Payton went 1-for-3 for the Orioles in the third inning.

If he had been at the plate, that would have been fine. But Payton was playing left field. He butchered one ball, was frozen on another and hauled in a high fly ball on successive batters, personally handing the Red Sox a 1-0 lead.

Payton ranged into left-center for David Ortiz’s leadoff fly ball, called off center fielder Corey Patterson, and then, looking back into a tough sun, misjudged the ball. He couldn’t reach it as it fell on the track for a gift double.

Manny Ramirez followed by sizzling a liner right at him, the toughest play for any outfielder. Payton turned one way, then back and had the ball sail over his head for a run-producing single that one-hopped the Green Monster.

When Mike Lowell lofted a high fly ball to the warning track, the crowd was hooting in anticipation of another misplay. But this time Payton, whose whining about a lack of playing time forced the Sox to trade him two years ago, made the catch.

Payton’s defensive nightmare continued when Pedroia’s hard single got past him and bounced to the wall in the fourth. Fortunately, the wall is close, serving as a “pitch-back,” so the ball ricocheted quickly back to Payton, who still was able to hold Pedroia to a single.

skrasner@projo.com