OAKLAND -- Want to know what kind of night it was for the Boston Red Sox?

All you needed to see was Dustin Pedroia, lying face-first in the dirt, the barrel of David Ortiz's shattered bat flying over him as the Oakland Athletics completed a double play, trapping him off first on a soft infield popup in the eighth inning.

That about summed it up for the Sox, who were shut down for the first six innings by ex-Soxer Lenny DiNardo and then closed out by another ex-Soxer, Alan Embree, in a 2-0 loss to the Athletics at the McAfee Coliseum.

Don't look now, but suddenly the Red Sox are having trouble finding a way to win. Yesterday's defeat was the third in a row for Boston, which, amazingly, constitutes the Sox' longest losing streak of the year. Boston has dropped five of its last six, though its hardly time to panic, since the team's lead in the American League East, while falling into the single digits, still is a healthy nine games over Toronto.

The previous two losses had come on last-inning homers. Last night's setback was largely the result of the double-play ball, as DiNardo, who was released by the Sox early in spring training to make room on the roster for J.D. Drew, outdueled right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka, for whom Boston ponied up $103 million to obtain.

Matsuzaka struggled a bit with his command but didn't pitch badly at all, though he surrendered both runs in his 130-pitch, seven-inning outing.

Eric Chavez hit a tough high-and-outside-corner 0-and-2 fastball for a homer to left-center in the fourth, and Nick Swisher's two-out, opposite-field double in the fifth on another tough outside fastball cashed in Jason Kendall (leadoff walk) for the only two runs of the game.

They were good enough, because DiNardo played the role of Houdini. The left-hander gave up only two hits, but he also walked six (and did not strike anyone out). His defense turned four double plays behind him.

"Damage control," said DiNardo. “I’ve got men on base, I have to make a good pitch and keep the ball down and hopefully they’ll roll over it. It wasn’t a picturesque performance. I think I doubled my walks for the year. But I tried to make my pitches when I needed to and get as many ground balls as I could."

He was successful in that mission, getting 13 of his last 15 outs on ground balls. The biggest double play came in the sixth with Oakland up, 2-0. Plate umpire Paul Emmel, who was a tad inconsistent behind the plate, played a role in this great escape.

Boston had the bases loaded with one out on a single by Ortiz and two walks. DiNardo went to 3-and-1 on Kevin Youkilis. His next pitch, a slider, appeared to be high and outside, coming around the plate late. But Emmel called it a strike, to the obvious irritation and amazement of the demonstrative Youkilis.

DiNardo's next pitch jammed Youkilis, who hit a broken-bat grounder to Chavez at third. Chavez stepped on the bag and threw to first for the vital twin killing, leaving Youkilis visibly upset, turning and barking at Emmel, no doubt feeling he should have had an RBI walk to cut the deficit to 2-1 with the bases still loaded and one out.

That was it for DiNardo. Four relievers preserved the victory for DiNardo (2-2) in his second start of the year and 13th appearance for the Athletics, who scooped him up soon after the Sox released him.

"We know what Lenny can do," said Boston manager Terry Francona. "We made him work, but he made a pitch when he had to."

"There were no hard feelings," said DiNardo, asked about being let go by the Sox in the spring and facing them last night.

"I tried not to look at who they were, because I went to battle with those guys the past three years. I learned a lot from them. I have a World Series ring from them. I love those guys over there. I wanted to go out and beat the other team, not beat the Boston Red Sox,” said DiNardo, who spent parts of the 2004 through 2006 seasons with Boston.

Embree, meanwhile, has seen a change in DiNardo that he carried into last night's game.

"He's not the same guy I first saw when he came to Boston," said Embree, a member of the Sox from 2002 to 2005. "He looks like he belongs and he acts like it.

"For him to do what he did against his ex-team, against that lineup, which can really hammer, and for him to stay as poised as he did, I was proud of him," said Embree.

On the other side of the pitching duel, there was much to be pleased about with Matsuzaka's performance, though he wasn't satisfied and the team lost. His pitch count climbed too high too early -- of the 29 batters he faced, he threw a first-pitch ball to 16 of them -- but it was still just a 2-0 game when he left.

"They made him work, but he still went seven innings and only gave up two runs," said Francona. "More often than not, we're patting him on the back and saying, 'Good effort.' But we put up a zero. Tonight was a night of offensive frustration, not bad pitching."

Tell that to Matsuzaka, who takes his bottom-line responsibility to win games very seriously.

"If the team had won, I could say that I had done my fair share," said Matsuzaka through his interpreter, Masa Hoshino.

"But I gave up that home run, which was preventable. The count was 0 and 2. (Catcher Jason) Varitek called for a fastball high and inside. I threw it high but over the middle of the plate. That was my own mistake. That was a preventable home run. And if I had stayed ahead in the count a little better (in the fifth, the walk to Kendall and a 3-and-2 count on Swisher) I could have prevented that second run," said Matsuzaka.

He was trying to be the losing-streak stopper.

"The Red Sox are not a team that loses many games," said Matsuzaka. "I felt a sense of urgency to stop the losing skid."

That ultimately didn't happen, but the Red Sox did have one last shot when Pedroia was hit on an 0-and-2 pitch by left-hander Jay Marshall, leading off the eighth.

But Ortiz broke his bat on a 3-and-1 pitch, and while Pedroia was eating dirt, Chavez was turning the soft popup into the fifth Oakland double play, effectively killing the Sox' last gasp.

"He took a step (when the ball was hit) and the bat came flying by. He lost (sight of) the ball and he fell," sighed Francona. "That's just the kind of night it was for us."

skrasner@projo.com