PHOENIX, Ariz. — The Daisuke Matsuzaka-versus-Randy Johnson matchup lived up to its advanced billing yesterday.

They threw fastballs and sliders and every other pitch they had in their respective repertoires, whiffing nine apiece in the Boston Red Sox-Arizona Diamondbacks interleague series finale at Chase Field.

Hits were at a premium as they battled each other to a virtual standoff after six innings, with Johnson and his Diamondbacks holding a one-run edge over Matsuzaka and his Red Sox.

But it was an errant toss by Boston pitcher Mike Timlin that enabled Arizona to pull away for a 5-1 victory in front of a crowd of 46,622, salvaging one game of the three-game set.

The setback capped an up-and-down seven-game journey for the Red Sox. Boston dropped the first three in Oakland, extending its season-long losing streak to four games and to six losses in seven games before rebounding for three straight victories heading into yesterday’s game.

The 3-4 record on the road trip dropped Boston’s first-place lead in the American League East to a still comfortable 9½ games, but now the second-place team is the surging New York Yankees, who have won six in a row. When June began, the Yankees were 13½ games behind Boston. They have sliced four games off their deficit over the last 10 days.

The focus of yesterday’s game, though, was the Johnson-Matsuzaka matchup. And the difference was one leadoff walk.

Johnson, 43, who had two difficult seasons in New York, has bounced back from back surgery and is looking more like the Big Unit of old as opposed to an old Big Unit. Dice-K, meanwhile, is establishing himself in the big leagues as a rookie from Japan.

There was little to choose between their performances yesterday.

Johnson (4-2, 3.52 ERA) was stung for a run in the fourth. He issued a leadoff walk to Manny Ramirez and Ramirez, running on the pitch, scored on Mike Lowell’s full-count double into the left-field corner. That was it against Johnson, who surrendered only four hits, walked three and fanned nine.

Leadoff walks got Dice-K into trouble twice. Orlando Hudson’s walk leading off the fourth turned into Arizona’s first run, coming home on a single by Stephen Drew. Conor Jackson’s leadoff walk in the sixth helped produce the tie-breaking run. He scored on Carlos Quentin’s one-out double to left-center, putting Arizona on top, 2-1.

Matsuzaka, like Johnson, also allowed only four hits over his six innings, fanning nine and walking four. Ultimately, though, he suffered his third straight loss in dropping to 7-5 for the season. In two starts on the road trip he went 0-2, but allowed only four runs in 13 innings and was backed by a total of just one run.

“He pitched his heart out,” said Boston manager Terry Francona, praising Dice-K. “They made him work. We made Randy work. It was a great matchup. You knew there wasn’t going to be a lot of offense early in this game. Dice-K was great. He used all his pitches.

“Randy looked pretty good,” added Francona. “You won’t see a lot of guys saying, ‘Randy’s pitching, he’s getting older, let’s jump into the batter’s box.’ ”

Boston catcher Jason Varitek was impressed with both pitchers.

“(Dice-K) did a very good job,” said Varitek. “There was one ball he left up after a walk and they hit it in the gap. I thought he threw well and fought well.”

And Randy? The crusty old, irritable flame-throwing lefty?

“He threw the ball well, too,” said Varitek. “There weren’t a lot of multiple hits in an inning for either team.”

No, there were a lot of quiet outs. But the game finally got away from Boston in the eighth when the Diamondbacks wanted to drop down a sacrifice bunt, and the Red Sox’ pitchers were too generous.

First it was Javier Lopez. The left-hander entered with a runner at first and none out and Boston down, 2-1. He got ahead of Stephen Drew, who fouled off one bunt attempt and then missed another, falling into an 0-and-2 hole. But then Lopez missed with his next four pitches, walking the Arizona shortstop.

Out went Lopez, replaced by Timlin. This time it was Quentin up to sacrifice. He dropped down a good bunt in front of the plate. Timlin picked it up and air-mailed his throw down the right-field line and suddenly it was 4-1. The Diamondbacks added another run on a single by Chris Young.

“They tried to give us outs (on sacrifice bunts) and we didn’t take them,” said Francona. “That’s never good. You do that, it’s a tough way to win. Mike usually handles that play, but he just nursed his throw over there. He knew. He felt bad.”

Timlin, just activated from the disabled list (shoulder tendinitis) on Saturday, made no excuses after barehanding the ball and launching his throw high over the head of Dustin Pedroia. And even though Pedroia is shorter than the average player, this throw would have gone over Manute Bol’s head.

“Just a bad toss,” said Timlin, adding he had a good grip and that the ball didn’t slip out of his hand.

“I just threw it away. I didn’t finish my throw. It got about two inches away from the tips of my fingers and I thought, ‘That’s not good at all.’ The ball came out of my hand well (during his time on the mound) except that one to first base. That was just a bad error,” he said.

And a bad way to end a road trip that could have been better and could have been worse.

skrasner@projo.com