Red Sox shortstop Julio Lugo tags out the Orioles’ Luke Scott as Scott tries to stretch a single into a double in the second inning of last night’s game.

AP / Gail Burton

BALTIMORE — While droves of Red Sox fans returned to New England after spending the weekend at Orioles Park at Camden Yards, the players remained to finish the four-game wraparound series.

The first three games were sellouts, but last night only 25,711 were in attendance to witness the Orioles avoid a sweep with a 6-3 victory over the Red Sox.

It was certainly an interesting weekend here. Friday’s night game went 13 innings. Manny Ramirez collected three home runs in the series, including his 500th of his career on Saturday. Now it’s going to get real interesting as the Red Sox will host the leader of the A.L. East — the Tampa Bay Rays — beginning tonight at Fenway Park.

Before the Red Sox could look ahead to this once-unlikely anticipated series with the Rays, Boston needed to first finish off the Orioles here last night.

Red Sox starter Tim Wakefield was solid again and allowed only two runs on five hits in seven innings of work. Unfortunately for Boston, reliever Hideki Okajima surrendered a 3-2 lead when he allowed four runs on four hits in the bottom of the eighth inning as Baltimore finished with the win.

“It looked like he left a lot of fastballs up and out over the plate,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “We feel so comfortable getting to him. … He just threw some fastballs where he didn’t want to, and he still almost got out of it.”

Wakefield kept the opposing hitters off balance through the first three innings until the knuckleballer surrendered a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth inning thanks in part to a RBI-double by Aubrey Huff and a RBI-single by Kevin Millar.

Baltimore starter Jeremy Guthrie was impressive during his 6 1/3 innings of work, but it was in the sixth inning that the Red Sox finally figured him out. Ramirez launched his third homer in as many games. The solo shot landed some 376 feet from home plate and he deposited it into the right-field seats for his 12th homer of the season and 502 of his career.

“The team is playing great,” said Ramirez. “We came here and took 3 out of 4, so we’ll go home and move on.”

Boston knotted the game at 2-2 in the seventh inning when Kevin Cash and Alex Cora perfectly executed a hit-and-run. With one out, Cora drew a walk before Cash followed with a liner to deep right-center field. Since Cora was on the move he was able to score to tie the game.

In the top of the eighth inning, the Red Sox pushed across the go-ahead run on a RBI-single by Mike Lowell. Boston could have added to its lead, but solid defense by Baltimore kept its deficit to one.

The O’s wouldn’t go quietly.

Wakefield was done after seven solid innings and was replaced by Okajima, who quickly allowed the Orioles to load the bases with three consecutive singles. That’s when Millar delivered a sacrifice fly with a deep fly ball to center field that snapped the Sox’ 14 straight scoreless innings by the bullpen to tie the game at 3-3.

Wakefield “threw a bunch of strikes and then we hand the ball to the bullpen, and more often than not he gives us a chance to win when he goes out there,” said Francona.

Okajima continued to struggle in the eighth and surrendered a two-out base-clearing double by the Orioles’ Adam Jones that barely missed being a grand slam. The shot off the top of the left-field wall gave Baltimore a 6-3 lead and ended the night for Okajima. It was only the second time the southpaw has allowed four runs in an inning, and it was the first time Okajima surrendered four hits in one inning with the Red Sox.

It was Okajima’s fifth blown save this season.

“We believe in him so much even when one disappears, but there are always extenuating circumstances,” said Francona. “Tonight, he just didn’t throw the ball like he wanted to. Early on [this season] when we rested him there were a couple of difficulties, and I think we took care of it. He just didn’t locate tonight and that’s going to happen sometimes.”

Ironically, the night ended when Ramirez flied out to right-center field with two runners aboard in the top of the ninth.

With this three-city, 10-game road trip now in the rearview mirror, the Sox will place their focus on the first-place Rays.

“We’re going to play hard and see what happens,” said Ramirez. “They have a great offense and great pitching. We’re just going to go battle and they’ll battle, too.”

jmcdonal@projo.com