The Red Sox’ Dustin Pedroia reacts to flying out to end the eighth inning of last night’s game, leaving two runners on base.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BOSTON — The party has been put on hold.

Boston has the A.L. East title within its reach, but last night the Red Sox were stymied in their bid to inch closer to their first division crown in 12 seasons. They’re coming oh so close, but the Minnesota Twins had other ideas with their 5-4 victory at Fenway Park.

Early yesterday afternoon, a Red Sox clubby was seen gathering a cooler of ice and wheeling it into the home clubhouse, likely preparing for a possible celebration. Since the Sox lost, and the New York Yankees beat Tampa Bay, Boston’s magic number remains at two.

The Red Sox sent 20-game winner and Cy Young Award candidate Josh Beckett to the mound against the Twins, and the right-hander allowed five runs and 10 hits, with six strikeouts, in six innings to suffer only his seventh loss of the season.

“Josh left some fastballs over the plate and he paid the price for it,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “We gave ourselves a really good opportunity in the ninth, but (Minnesota closer Joe) Nathan made some really good pitches when he had to.”

Beckett said after the game that he had trouble commanding his fastball, which was obvious on the pair of solo home runs he surrendered to the Twins’ Michael Cuddyer and Garrett Jones in the second and sixth innings, respectively.

“If you can’t locate your fastball, hitters are going to get the best of you most of the time,” said Beckett, who finished his second regular season with the Red Sox with a 20-7 record, including a 3.27 ERA, and reached the 200-inning plateau, which he said was a goal of his this year. Still, he’s not about to talk about individual accomplishments because there’s a higher purpose — a World Series championship.

“We still have some things we want to do for the rest of the regular season,” said Beckett. “Obviously, I’m not going to be part of the rest of the regular season, so I’ll sit there with my pom-pons. We’ll worry about [the postseason] once we find out what day we’re playing. With the whole scheduling thing, it kind of has everybody wondering what the heck is going on. We’re trying to finish strong and hopefully we can win a couple of games in the next three.”

The Twins scored early and often against Beckett, pushing across one run in each of the first three innings, including a monster solo home run by Cuddyer in the second. The Twins scored once in the fifth before Jones launched his solo shot to center in the sixth. Boston scored two runs in the first inning and David Ortiz hit a solo homer in the fifth. With the Sox trailing by two runs in the bottom of the eighth, Jason Varitek provided a one-out solo homer into the Monster Seats to cut Boston’s deficit to 5-4. The Red Sox weren’t done, but they couldn’t get over the top. After Bobby Kielty struck out, Eric Hinske and Julio Lugo contributed back-to-back singles before Dustin Pedroia popped out to first to end the inning. Red Sox rookie Brandon Moss made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth with a leadoff double. Ortiz was issued a free pass before Mike Lowell grounded out to first, moving the runners into scoring position. With first base open, the Twins elected to intentionally walk J.D. Drew to face Varitek, who struck out swinging.

Kevin Youkilis, who was not in the starting lineup, pinch-hit for Kielty and struck out to end the threat and the game.

“We’re riding pretty high right now,” said Beckett. “We’re hitting the ball real well, but obviously today wasn’t a great game. We’re still hitting the ball and playing great defense. We’ve pitched well, too. You don’t plan on winning every game in a season, and besides today, we’re doing pretty well.”

So the party’s on hold for now, but the Red Sox and their fans know they’re close to a division title. They’ll just have to see what happens tonight.

jmcdonal@projo.com