BOSTON — Red Sox fans who like to follow their team in the playoffs would do well to begin looking into travel arrangements to Anaheim early next week.

After what happened last night in Fenway and Camden Yards, it is looking more than ever as if the Sox will be the American League wildcard entry this season and begin the postseason in California against the Angels.

The Sox will have to wait at least one more day before even clinching a playoff berth. They fell to Cleveland, 4-3, in a sloppy return to Fenway.

They had plenty of chances to win and clinch their fifth postseason berth in the last six years. But they were not sharp as they lost a one-run decision for the 23rd time this year.

Starting pitcher Josh Beckett was uncharacteristically wild, hitting three batters for the first time in his major-league career as he allowed four runs in six innings.

Boston had trouble with high-kicking left-handed rookie pitcher Zach Jackson, who went six innings to earn his first major-league win. Boston put at least one runner on in each of the last seven innings and had plenty of chances.

“I don’t know what the final numbers were, but we left a lot of guys on base,” said manager Terry Francona. “We couldn’t come up with the big hit.”

“We now have to put it together for the playoffs,” said David Ortiz. “And everybody knows what to do.”

The Sox left 12 runners stranded, eight in scoring position. It all added up to a tough loss, one that pushes Boston a step closer toward opening the postseason in Anaheim next week.

Tampa Bay beat Baltimore, 4-2, with Warwick’s Dan Wheeler getting the save for the Rays. Tampa Bay now leads the Sox by 2½ games in the drive for the A.L. East pennant, three in the loss column. That effectively is four in the loss column, though, since the Rays have the tiebreaker over the Sox if the teams finish with the same record.

The Sox will have to be sharper in the postseason than they were last night. They hurt themselves with mistakes, most notably a base-running gaffe in the sixth between Jason Bay and Jason Varitek that ran them out of an inning. That came on a play that also included some bad luck, when a shot hit down the third-base line by Jeff Bailey hit umpire Brian Gorman and, instead of going into the corner, stayed on the edge of the infield grass and cost the Sox at least one run.

“That was unfortunate,” Francona said. “That cost us a run.”

Bay rounded third but decided to stop when he saw that the ball was barely on the edge of the outfield grass. Varitek, though, had rounded second and was steaming toward third. When Bay saw Varitek, he turned back toward the plate and was caught in a rundown.

“There are a lot of things in the game that you can’t control,” Ortiz said. “You don’t see umpires getting hit by the ball too many times. It was too fast and he couldn’t get out of the way. Not much you can do there.”

There was more frustration for the Sox in the seventh. They scored once to close it to 4-3. Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia singled and Ortiz hit into a fielder’s choice that retired Pedroia at second. Kevin Youkilis then lofted a wall-ball double that scraped high off the wall. Ellsbury scored easily, but Ortiz had to hold at third.

With the tying and lead runs now in scoring position, Cleveland manager Eric Wedge ordered Bay walked intentionally to load the bases for Jed Lowrie. Facing reliever Rafael Betancourt, Lowrie got ahead, 3-1, fouled one pitch off, then took strike three looking.

Betancourt got out of the inning by retiring Mark Kotsay on a routine fly ball to left.

Boston had one final chance in the ninth. After the first two batters were retired, Kevin Youkilis singled off Jensen Lewis. Bay followed with a line double to left, sending Youkilis to third. Jensen ended it by striking out Lowrie.

Boston now has gone six straight games without scoring more than four runs.

For the first time since returning from the disabled list earlier this month, Beckett was not sharp. He had hit only six batters all season, but hit three last night. Beckett was not happy about the first, saying he felt Ryan Garko was leaning over the plate when he was hit in the second, leading to the Indians’ first run.

Cleveland added three more in the fifth when Cabrera, Jamey Carroll and Shin-Soo Choo all had singles and Jhonny Peralta a bloop double to right.

Ellsbury had two hits and scored twice for the Sox and Ortiz homered into the Sox bullpen in the fifth. It was his 231st home run with the Sox, moving him past Mo Vaughn into sixth place on Boston’s all-time list. Ortiz had gone 27 games with only one home run. He now has hit five in Boston’s last seven games.

That’s a good sign for the Sox’ postseason hopes, one of the few good signs that came out of last night’s game.

pkenyon@projo.com