Red Sox starter and Cy Young candidate Josh Beckett fires a pitch during the first inning yesterday at Camden Yards.

AP / Gail Burton

BALTIMORE — Outstanding starting pitching from Cy Young candidate Josh Beckett. Spotless setup relief by Hideki Okajima. And a typically dominant save from virtually unhittable Jonathan Papelbon.

That, plus a manufactured run of all things on a stolen base by J.D. Drew and Coco Crisp’s tie-breaking two-out single in the eighth, was the formula used by the Boston Red Sox in their 3-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles yesterday at Camden Yards.

It was typical of the way Boston was winning games early in the season, when the Red Sox bolted out to a commanding lead in the American League East. And it’s a formula the Sox would like to feature over their final 18 games and into the postseason.

Certainly, Beckett (18-6), who is tied with the Yankees’ Chien-Ming Wang for the league lead in victories, and Papelbon (35 saves in 37 chances) have been consistent all season. Okajima has had a few lapses recently, but after three days off, the left-hander once again looked sharp in holding up his end of the bullpen bargain.

Beckett gave up seven hits, but only two hurt him — solo homers by Melvin Mora in the fourth and Nick Markakis in the sixth, which negated Mike Lowell’s two-out, two-run single in the third.

The right-hander’s pitch count was soaring on another hot and steamy day here when he faced one last challenge. The Orioles’ Brian Roberts was up with a runner at third, two outs and the game tied at 2-2.

The duo engaged in a 10-pitch duel. Roberts fouled off six pitches in a row as Beckett went to his power game, pumping in one fastball after another, all nine of them in the 94-96-mph range. But Beckett fooled Roberts with a changeup on the final pitch. The ball was in the dirt but Roberts, committed to not letting a sizzling fastball beat him, couldn’t hold up his swing on Beckett’s 116th and final pitch.

“That was a phenomenal at-bat and even better for us because we got him out,” said Boston manager Terry Francona. “That was one of the better hitters in the league against one of the better pitchers. He (Beckett) had to be that good because there was no margin for error.”

Beckett, who shrugged off talk of a 20-win season and his Cy Young credentials, said “(Roberts) is a great baseball player, one of the smartest guys I’ve ever played against.”

Beckett was put in position for a win because the Sox scored in the eighth, and then in came Okajima, to form the bullpen bridge to Papelbon. The left-hander had not been as automatic as he had been earlier. In each of his last six outings, and in 9 of his last 10, Okajima had put at least one runner on base, prompting suggestions from the media that he may be getting tired.

Yesterday, though, Okajima looked sharp, needing only 10 pitches to mow down the Orioles in the eighth, racking up one strikeout along the way.

“I don’t think Hideki looked tired,” said Francona with a chuckle. “I thought his ball had a lot of life.”

But life on Okajima’s pitches doesn’t compare with what Papelbon delivers.

And while he did give up a hit — a broken-bat single by Mora with one out, the first hit he had surrendered in 27 at-bats since Aug. 17 — Papelbon had little trouble in finishing off the Orioles. He struck out the final two batters he faced, taking advantage of relatively inexperienced Orioles Scott Moore and Freddie Bynum for swinging strike threes on nasty splitters in the dirt.

“I feel like I’m in a pretty good zone,” said Papelbon, who has held hitters to a miniscule .041 (2-for-49) batting average since July 28.

“It’s a situation where I don’t even know what I’m doing. It’s not like I’m going home and writing it down. I’m just trying to go out there and repeat it. Today the splitter just felt good. I had good depth on it and when a pitch feels so good, you try to run with it,” he said.

skrasner@projo.com