OAKLAND — The question caused a grimace to spread over the face of Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona the other day.

How does he keep his team focused and not feeling complacent given the Sox’ commanding lead in the American League East a little more than one-third of the way through the regular-season schedule?

That was the gist of the question from the out-of-town writer.

“You’re not around here much, are you?” said Francona to the local media member.

“We try to stay in the present. We worry about winning today’s game. We don’t need to have meetings. I don’t need to go around the clubhouse waving my pompons and giving a Knute Rockne (speech). We just get after it every day.”

Francona knows full well that 162 games have to be played every season. There is no prize for having the best record 57 games into the season, which is what Boston boasted as it prepared for last night’s game against Oakland at the McAfee Coliseum.

And Francona has players who have been around the block more than once. They are used to riding out the ups and downs of a season. The cliché is that a player or a team should never get too high after a win or too low after a loss.

The Sox have been good this season about keeping their head sizes from inflating as they zipped through the schedule in the first two months when things were going so well.

Now it is time for the Red Sox to keep their heads from deflating when things are not going so well. For the first time this season, Boston has hit a rut. The Red Sox lost the first two games of this four-game set, accounting for their first three-game losing streak of the season. And going back a few more games, Boston has dropped five of its last six.

The last three losses have been tough to take. Alex Rodriguez beat Jonathan Papelbon with a two-out homer on an 0-and-2 pitch in Fenway Park on Sunday night for a 6-5 New York Yankees win. The next night, on a different coast, it was another last-at-bat homer that rocked Boston, this one an 11th-inning clout by Oakland’s Eric Chavez off Kyle Snyder that gave the Athletics a 5-4 victory.

On Tuesday night, the Red Sox lost again despite getting a very solid performance from Daisuke Matsuzaka. Boston fell, 2-0, shackled by castoff left-hander Lenny DiNardo and the frustration of hitting into five double plays, four of them on grounders against the former Sox pitcher.

The lead in the standings still was a comfortable nine games when the Sox woke up yesterday, but a few troublesome spots have begun to surface.

Middle relievers, who had been unimportant when the starters were tossing one outstanding seven-inning stint after another, have been called on more often lately, with inconsistent results.

Hideki Okajima, who had racked up 19 consecutive scoreless appearances after allowing a homer in his debut, has been scored upon in three of his last six outings. Papelbon, who has found save chances few and far between the last month, has been scored upon in three of his last seven appearances after having had 13 scoreless outings in his first 14 games.

Nitpicking? Maybe. But the Red Sox are human, despite the fast start. Some players are older than others, which calls into question recent inconsistent starts by 40-year-olds Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield.

Offensively, Boston has been able to make do with less-than-expected contributions from Julio Lugo and J.D. Drew because Kevin Youkilis, Mike Lowell and David Ortiz have been consistently outstanding all year, with Manny Ramirez and Dustin Pedroia heating up lately.

This is not a team without warts. All teams have them. The Red Sox have fewer than most, as has been evidenced by their gaudy record.

It took a long time for there to be a bump in the road. Boston has hit that bump.

But, following Francona’s lead, the Red Sox stay in the present, just doing what they can to win each night’s game, putting a tough loss, or a stirring win, behind them before the first pitch of the next game.

It’s a team that has too many veterans to ride an emotional roller coaster, which may be this team’s biggest asset as the inevitable speed bump has cropped up in the path of the pennant express.

skrasner@projo.com