Red Sox starter Curt Shilling, another hero in last night’s victory over Baltimore, delivers a pitch during the third inning.

AP / Don Wright

BALTIMORE — The final score is deceiving.

The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-1, last night at Camden Yards.

But this was a game that came down to one at-bat, one typically tough, clutch at-bat by the Red Sox’ David Ortiz.

The score was 1-1 when Boston’s designated hitter came to the plate in the top of the seventh inning.

The Red Sox, having worked standout Baltimore starter Daniel Cabrera to near exhaustion in extracting a couple of walks, had runners at first and second with two outs with Ortiz coming to the plate.

Baltimore manager Sam Perlozzo called for his left-handed relief specialist, Jamie Walker, whom the Orioles handed a three-year, $12-million contract for just such occasions.

Walker got ahead of Ortiz at 0 and 2. On the second pitch, Ortiz looked foolish, which doesn’t happen every day. He took a half-swing and missed a breaking ball on the outside corner by several feet.

But anyone who has been watching Ortiz for the last few years pretty much knew how this would turn out. It was a clutch situation. Ortiz was at the plate. How often does he not come through for the Red Sox?

And once again, Ortiz did come through. On the 11th pitch of the at-bat, Ortiz got enough of a breaking ball to loft a shallow fly ball to left field, where it fell safely to the turf before left fielder Jay Payton, who, naturally, was playing deep for the slugger, could even have a chance to dive for it.

The Sox were on top, 2-1, and they kept at it. Manny Ramirez singled home a run off Chad Bradford, who also walked Jason Varitek with the bases loaded. And Boston piled on two more runs in the ninth at the expense of rookie right-hander Jim Johnson.

But it was Ortiz’s at-bat, not to mention a strong game from Curt Schilling, that won last night’s game for Boston, which snapped a two-game losing streak.

“He pretty much threw everything at me,” said Ortiz. “I’m the type of hitter in situations like that who gets better when I go deeper in the count. As a hitter, you make adjustments (during an at-bat). That’s what I do.

“You have to give him credit,” said Ortiz. “He made a lot of good pitches. I just had to keep staying with them. I just give everything I have up there. If you get me, you get me. I just create ideas every pitch I see.”

Ortiz was being magnanimous in triumph. But he is one of a handful of hitters (Manny Ramirez is another when he’s on top of his game) who can be behind in the count at 0 and 2 on the scoreboard yet still seem in control in the batter’s box.

Certainly his manager, Terry Francona, and teammates such as Mike Lowell have come to marvel at the way Ortiz can battle at the plate, especially with the game on the line.

“David’s at-bat was tremendous,” said Francona. “The deeper in the count he gets the more dangerous he gets.

“David has had success against him in the past, but they brought (Walker) here for this type of at-bat. David ended up getting a couple of pitches to hit and fouled them off. He had to fight. He didn’t crush the ball, but he stayed on it long enough for the ball to find some grass and keep our inning going. That was not a lucky hit — that’s staying on a tough lefty,” he said.

Lowell, meanwhile, has been extremely impressed by Ortiz since he came over to Boston last year.

“It’s more of a mental thing than a physical thing,” said Lowell. “In those situations he has so much confidence. He does it over and over again.

“It’s not as if he squared that ball up. We got a little lucky there. But he put himself in position to get lucky because of all those foul balls (on tough pitches). He forced that at-bat. He saw a ton of pitches and got enough wood on the last one,” he said.

All Perlozzo could do was sigh.

“It was a good battle,” said the Baltimore manager. “He fought off some good pitches. (Walker) made a good pitch the last time and he (Ortiz) just flared one in off us. There’s not much you can do about that.”

That’s something that has been said about Ortiz by the opposition many times over the last few seasons. All they can do is hope it isn’t Ortiz coming to the plate in a clutch situation.

As for the Sox, there’s no one they would rather have in there, as he showed again last night.

skasner@projo.com