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BALTIMORE -- Takeaways on a night when the Red Sox could safely turn their attention to the postseason after Oakland's loss late Saturday afternoon assured them of the league's best record and home-field advantage throughout the postseason:

* John Farrell, on finishing ahead of the Athletics, and the Fenway Factor in October:

"It's a tribute to the guys in uniform, the way they've come in and competed every day to put ourselves in position to secure home-field advantage. We'd have liked this game to finish up differently, but to know going into the postseason that every series we go into we'll have home-field advantage and playing in front of Fenway fans and how comfortable and successful we've been at home, this is a good thing."

* Jon Lester stiffs media after final regular-season start:

Not what you think. The Sox left-hander had the best of reasons, flying back home to Boston after coming out of the game to be with his wife, Farrah, who's about to give birth to the couple's second child. Who says life can't take a turn for the better after what was easily the worst season of Lester's career in 2012, when he went 9-14 with a 4.82 ERA. The final line on his 2013 regular season: 33 starts, a career-high 213 1/3 innings, 15-8 record, 3.75 ERA, 177 strikeouts and 67 walks. Every significant statistical category was better than the year before: K's per 9 (7.47), walks per 9 (2.8), hits per nine (8.8), home runs per nine (0.8).

Saturday, he was not at his best -- nine hits, including a home run by Brian Roberts, and four runs in five innings -- but he threw 97 pitches and will be well-rested when he goes into next weekend.

"Not as sharp," Farrell said. "Given the way he's righted the ship from a year ago to this year, a very strong season overall."

Farrell continues to hold off on naming his rotation for the postseason. When Alex Speier of WEEI.com asked whether the Lesters planned to name their baby, "Game One Starter," Farrell cracked: "If they do, someone needs to be slapped."

* You can't be a Sox fan without something to worry about:

And the bridge between the starters and closer Koji Uehara remains the obvious choice. Lefty Matt Thornton, on the bubble for an October roster spot, went three up and three down in the sixth, striking out one. Junichi Tazawa then needed just eight pitches to breeze through the heart of the Orioles' order, retiring J.J. Hardy on a fly ball, slugger Chris Davis on a ground ball, and striking out cleanup man Adam Jones.

But then Tazawa came out for the eighth and yielded back-to-back singles to Matt Wieters and Danny Valencia. Maybe, Farrell said afterward, Tazawa is better in one-inning stints at this stage, but because he'd made such fast work of the Orioles in the seventh, the Sox sent him back out to start the eighth.

Franklin Morales came in and overpowered left-handed hitting Nick Markakis, just as he had Colorado's Todd Helton on Wednesday night, with the same result each time: The hitter went down swinging. But then the right-handed hitting DH, Steve Pearce, hit a ball into the corner, where Gomes had a little trouble picking it up, and the Orioles had the lead.

This was only the fifth time in 83 games that the Sox lost after leading through seven innings. That's not a habit you want to develop headed into October.

In the season's second half, setup man Craig Breslow has made 29 appearances, allowing just two earned runs in 26 2/3 innings for an 0.68 ERA.

The rest of the relievers expected to be in the mix for the playoff roster -- Tazawa, Morales, Thornton, Ryan Dempster, Brandon Workman, and Drake Britton -- have a 3.84 ERA in the second half. That's pretty good, but leaves some room to fret.

* Compared to what he did for Chico, he's in a slump:

Daniel Nava went 4-for-4 Saturday night, his sixth career four-hit game and fourth this season, to raise his average to .303 with a game to play, assuring himself of his first .300 season in the big leagues. Nava could go 0-for-5 Sunday and still finish at .300.

The safety zone to finish above .300 is almost as big for Dustin Pedroia, who went 3-for-5 Saturday, his second straight three-hit game, to raise his average to .301. He'd have to go 0-for-4 to drop below .300, to .299. It would be his third season of hitting .300 or better.

Nava, signed out of the independent Golden Baseball League, batted .371 in his last season (2007) for the Chico Outlaws, before his rights were sold for a buck.

What made Saturday's performance stand out was that all four hits came against lefties. Nava is hitting .322 versus right-handers, and his four hits Saturday raised his average against lefties 26 percentage points, from .226 to .252.

"I'm sure he's going to take from this some increased confidence when he faces left-handers," Farrell said. "He's done an outstanding job for us all year, and he's finishing on a high note."

* Overlook Stephen Drew at your own peril:

He doubled and singled and scored two runs Saturday. He tripled and singled and drove in three runs Friday. He is hitting .333 over his past 13 games with eight extra-base hits. He is batting .276 in the season's second half, after batting .233 in the first half, when he was coming back from a concussion and a hamstring issue. He's made eight errors at shortstop all season. He's been underappreciated.

BALTIMORE -- The Red Sox were 53-28 at Fenway Park this season, the best home record in the league by a game over the Athletics (52-29) and two games better than the Tigers and Rays (51-30), all three teams the Sox could meet in the postseason.

Having the home-field advantage in October mattered to them, they said, from John Farrell on down, and now they have it.

Two years to the night that the Sox were eliminated from the playoffs on the last day of the season here in Oriole Park at Camden Yards, they took the field Saturday night against the Orioles already assured of their goal, the Athletics having lost to the Mariners just moments earlier.

A game shorn of urgency instead became an exercise in advance preparation for the postseason, though the Sox still took it to the last out before falling 6-5 to the Orioles before a crowd of 36,556. Jonny Gomes took a called, full-count third strike from Orioles closer Jim Johnson with the tying run on second base to end it.

Left-hander Jon Lester, the likely choice to pitch the division series opener Friday in Boston, pitched five innings and came away with a no-decision in his final regular-season start of 2013, his 15-8 record and 3.75 ERA a quantum leap from last year's 9-14 and 4.82 ERA.

Left-handed reliever Matt Thornton, auditioning for a spot in the postseason bullpen, pitched a clean sixth inning. Junichi Tazawa gave the Sox a three-up, three-down seventh, then gave up back-to-back singles in the eighth that ultimately turned into the game's deciding runs when Steve Pearce doubled off lefty Franklin Morales after he'd just whiffed Nick Markakis.

And Quintin Berry, who could be kept as a late-inning base-stealing threat, stole second as a pinch runner after Mike Napoli hit a two-out single in the ninth before Gomes struck out to end it.
The win assured the Orioles of winning the season series against the Red Sox. They lead 10-8. The Sox are 36-21 (.632) against the rest of the division.

Daniel Nava, bidding to finish the season with a .300 average, had four hits, matching a career high, to raise his average to .303. Dustin Pedroia went 3-for-5, giving him six hits in the past two nights and raising his average to .301. Gomes, Stephen Drew and David Ross had two hits apiece.

Both Jacoby Ellsbury and David Ortiz were given the night off.

BALTIMORE -- We tend to pay a great deal of attention to a team's record in one-run games, presuming that the better teams win the close ones.

But at least this season, there is a far greater correlation between a team's success in blowout games (games decided by 5 or more runs) than in one-run games.

The Red Sox are tied with the Tigers for the most wins by 5 runs or more, with 33. The Indians are next with 30, the Athletics fourth with 28, the Rangers fifth with 27, and the Rays sixth with 23. The Red Sox, Tigers and Athletics are all division winners, and the Indians, Rangers and Rays are the three teams still in the wild-card race.

The teams with the best record in one-run games? The Yankees are 29-16, the Indians 30-17, and the Athletics 30-20. The Sox are 21-19, the Tigers 20-24.

BALTIMORE -- For the Red Sox, this amounted to a free game. Just as they were preparing to play the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday night, word came that Oakland had lost in Seattle to the Mariners, 7-5.

That loss assured the Red Sox of finishing with the league's best overall record regardless of the outcome of their last two games here against the Orioles. The Sox began the night with a 97-63 record. The Athletics, who have lost three of their last four games, are now 95-66.

The importance of finishing with the best record in the league? It assures the Red Sox of home-field advantage not only in the AL Division Series, which begins Friday, but also in the ALCS. The American League won the All-Star Game, so that assures the Sox of home-field advantage in the World Series should they advance.

It also means the Sox will play the winner of the wild-card play-in game Wednesday, in the first round, while the Athletics open at home against the Detroit Tigers, winner of the AL Central.

The Sox will play one of three teams in the first round: the Indians, Rays or Rangers. The Indians won their season-best ninth game in a row Saturday and lead the wild-card race, a game ahead of the Rays and Rangers, who are tied at 90-71. If the Indians win Sunday, they are assured of one spot in Wednesday's wild-card play-in game. But the possibility still exists that the wild-card contenders could finish in a two-way or three-way tie, necessitating either an additional game on Monday (in event of a two-way tie) or games on Monday and Tuesday (if a three-way tie) ahead of Wednesday's wild-card showdown.

The Sox won 6 of 7 from the Indians during the regular season. They were 12-7 vs. the Rays, and 2-4 vs. the Rangers.

Against the teams already qualified for the AL playoffs, the Sox were 3-4 vs. the Tigers, 3-3 vs. the Athletics.

Starting times for the first two games of the division series have yet to be announced.

BALTIMORE -- Rocky Mountain high or sittin' on the dock of the (Chesapeake) bay, it makes no difference these days to the Red Sox, who can do no worse than tie for the best record in the American League after their 12-3 demolition of the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night.

"I think it speaks volumes for the team that we have, the way they've performed as a group throughout the course of this year," manager John Farrell said. "We've still got two more games to play and because we've put ourselves in one position, it doesn't change our approach coming back here tomorrow."

The Red Sox's record is now 97-63, which leaves the Oakland Athletics in a position of having to sweep their season-ending series in Seattle while hoping the Sox lose their last two in Baltimore to force a tie. Should that happen, the Athletics would claim the best overall record in the league, based on a convoluted set of tiebreakers. (The first tiebreaker is head-to-head record, but Boston and Oakland split their season series at three wins each; the A's would have the advantage in the second tiebreaker, best intradivision record -- the A's could finish 45-31 in the West, versus Boston's 44-32 mark in the East.)

In that case, the Red Sox would open their AL division series at home next Friday against the Detroit Tigers, winners of the AL Central, while Oakland would host the wild-card winner.

The Athletics beat the Mariners and their ace, Felix Hernandez, 8-2, on Friday night, to remain one game behind the Sox with two to go.

The preferable scenario for the Sox is that they would get the wild-card winner -- the Rays and Indians are tied, with the Rangers one game behind -- and also be the home team for the ALCS, should they advance that far.

So, for another day at least, the Sox remain in a state of limbo, which is still far preferable to the state of shock that the Orioles left them in two years ago this weekend, when they knocked Boston out of the playoffs altogether on the last day of the regular season. The Orioles, who were eliminated from wild-card consideration earlier this week, could still play a limited spoiler role this weekend, but the Red Sox weren't about to give them that satisfaction Friday night.

The late-comers were still filing in when the Red Sox jumped on Orioles starter Ryan Feldman for five runs on five hits and a walk in the first inning, the big blow a three-run home run by Daniel Nava. By the third, when the Sox opened an 8-0 lead, every player in Boston's starting lineup except for Jacoby Ellsbury had at least one hit.

The Red Sox reached double figures in both runs and hits (16) at sea level in their first game since doing the same at altitude in Denver (15 runs on 16 hits Wednesday night). Jonny Gomes had four hits and a walk, hitting a first-pitch home run to lead off the ninth for Boston's final run.

"I just tell you, it echoes the comments and thoughts and conversations going on in the clubhouse here," Farrell said. "These guys are in a pretty good place. They're not looking to back off. They continue not to give away at-bats in the course of a night. Tonight was another example of that."

David Ortiz, who earlier this week reached 100 RBIs for the seventh time in his career, made it seven times to the 30-homer level, too, when he hit an opposite-field three-run home run off Orioles rookie Mike Belfiore, Ortiz the first batter the right-hander faced in his major league debut. Welcome to the big leagues, kid.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia thought he had a three-run home run, too, in the third until umpires reversed their call upon video review and ruled a ground-rule double. The reversal actually earned Saltalamacchia a line in the Sox record book, as the double was his 40th of the season, a club record for catchers.

It won't show up in anybody's record book, but it's still impressive: Closer Koji Uehara struck out the first batter he faced, Chris Snyder, in the ninth, for his 100th strikeout of the season, in just 73 1/3 innings. He is the eighth Sox reliever to strike out 100 batters, the first to do so in fewer than 100 innings.

The Sox, now 33-13 in games decided by five runs or more, made it an easy night for Clay Buchholz, who went seven innings and threw 113 pitches to run his record to 12-1. He did not walk a batter, struck out four and gave up seven hits, including home runs to Adam Jones, a two-run shot in the third, and Chris Davis, a bases-empty homer, his major league-best 53rd home run of the season.

Ellsbury went hitless in four trips in his second game back from his foot injury, giving way to Jackie Bradley Jr. in the seventh. Mike Napoli, who hadn't played since last Friday while resting his foot (plantar fasciitis), doubled and scored in his first plate appearance and also walked twice and whiffed twice.

Shane Victorino (thumb) sat this one out, though manager John Farrell said Victorino wanted to play and would be back in the lineup Saturday.

BALTIMORE -- There were a few miles an hour missing on Clay Buchholz's fastball Friday night, but there were extenuating circumstances.

"I was sleeping all day yesterday," Buchholz said.

He assured one and all that's not part of his customary routine. Usually, he at least plays catch the day before, but the Red Sox flew all night from Denver on Wednesday, which meant falling into bed around 7 a.m. Thursday, and the Orioles had a home game Thursday night, leaving Buchholz little recourse but to adjust.

"My body felt a little lethargic," he said. "I felt it when I woke up this morning that it might be a grinding day today."

But even if his fastball registered just 88 on the radar guns Friday night, he had a couple of things work in his favor in a 12-3 win over the Orioles. One was the Sox offense: The Sox gave him five runs even before he went to the mound, and increased the lead to 8-0 by the third.

"I'm just glad the team could score all those runs," he said. "It didn't put a whole lot of stress on the outing."

The second was that even without his best stuff, he went seven innings, threw 113 pitches, did not walk a batter and allowed just three runs, all coming on home runs: a two-run home run by Adam Jones in the third and a solo shot by Chris Davis in the sixth. That matched the number of home runs Buchholz had allowed in 101 1/3 innings entering the game, which might raise some eyebrows, although Jones (33) and Davis (53) have 86 home runs between them.

So does this mean the Buchholz, who has now made four starts since spending 94 days on the disabled list is not the same guy who was undefeated in nine decisions before he went down with shoulder bursitis?

"He set a pretty high standard for himself this year," manager John Farrell said. "Games when he goes out and gives up three or four runs, people start to wonder, 'Is he OK?' He's fine, and we've been able to get those four starts, build pitch count and put him in a good position to go forward."

Buchholz said he thought in his last start his velocity was similar to what it had been earlier in the season. Obviously, that wasn't the case Friday, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"He pitched with what he felt he had," Farrell said. "He's very routine-oriented. He felt fatigue, a little sluggish."

That he resorted to other weapons, Farrell said, "was a sign of maturity more than anything. There's not anything physically restricting him. He's answered the physical question for sure. On a night where he was not as sharp, he still kept them in check."

Buchholz, now 12-1 with a 1.74 ERA, concurred.

"I feel good," he said. "It's all about command, control, location of each pitch. I was going good before I got hurt, but I've said all along I'm not asking to get back to that point, but somewhere close. The last four starts, I got better at a different facet of my game with each start. I'm starting to have command of all my pitches. Slowly but surely I got there."

BALTIMORE -- The name figured to come up in conversation Friday night, and David Ortiz was ready for it.

"You've seen Ted Williams and you've seen me," Ortiz joked to WBZ's Jonny Miller, the senior member of the Red Sox media corps. "Now you can die."

Miller took it in stride. "I saw Ted, when he was a year older than you, hit .388," said Miller, referring to the 1957 season in which Williams, then 38, hit .388 and won the fifth of his six batting titles.

Ortiz playfully muttered a curse. "If I hit .388 now," he said, "people would say I'm using something."

When Ortiz can jest about PEDs, given the scrutiny he has faced over the years, then you know he's feeling good about himself and his team. And why not? The Red Sox beat the Orioles 12-3 on Friday night to clinch no worse than a tie for the best overall record in the league, and in his final plate appearance of the night, in the eighth inning, Ortiz launched his 30th home run of the season, an opposite-field three-run shot that landed in the left-field seats.

The home run came off Mike Belfiore, a 24-year-old right-hander facing his first hitter in the majors.

"Welcome to the big leagues," Ortiz said.

Belfiore is a former No. 1 draft pick out of Boston College.

"I heard he's from Boston, too," Ortiz said. "My boy. Jeez. He already knows."

Ortiz didn't elaborate on the extent of Belfiore's knowledge, but presumably he meant that if the kid was on Chestnut Hill long enough, he was more than aware of the magnitude of the hitter he was facing.

The home run placed Ortiz in the Sox record books as the only player other than Williams to have seven seasons of at least 30 home runs and 100 RBIs. And here's something Ortiz has done that Williams didn't: At 37, he became the first Sox player ever, and the seventh in baseball history, to hit at least .300, with 30 or more home runs and 100 or more RBIs. (Although, truth be told, it tells you more about Ted's team than his performance in '57 -- that even with a .388 average, 38 home runs, and a .731 slugging percentage, he drove in only 87 runs.)

"It's a huge honor for myself to be mentioned with one of the greatest that ever played the game in this organization," Ortiz said of being linked to Williams. "Got to keep the line moving, try to keep on producing for this ballclub."

As long as we're name-dropping Hall of Famers, here's another: Ortiz's home run was the 431st of his career, tying him for 45th on the all-time list with Cal Ripken Jr., an icon in these parts. Could there be a Cooperstown sighting one day for Ortiz? If so, chances are good that Jonny Miller will stick around for the occasion.

"In the minds of many, he's a Hall of Fame hitter," manager John Farrell said. "He's been a productive hitter throughout his whole career here, and to put himself in the company of Ted Williams is very rare."

Starting Monday, we’ll be ramping up our Red Sox coverage in anticipation of their first playoff appearance since 2009. The Sox will have four days off in between the end of the regular season and Game 1 of the ALDS, so we planned a daily “5-for-5” blog series that answers five questions on this team.

Our four Red Sox writers -- Gordon Edes, Joe McDonald, Tony Lee and Kyle Brasseur -- will weigh in, but we want one of our readers for the fifth spot in our rotation.

We’ll list the questions we will be answering below and the day each will run. Submit your answers (100-150 words or so) either as comments on this blog entry, as submissions to our Red Sox mailbag, via email HERE or by tweeting using the #Sox5for5 hashtag.

You can answer just one of the questions or all five if you wish.

Check back here each morning to see if you made the cut.

• Monday’s question: What’s the biggest reason for the Red Sox’s worst-to-first transformation? And how much stock do you put in the character/chemistry argument?

• Tuesday’s question: Which ALDS matchup is best for the Red Sox (this assumes they get the top seed)?

• Wednesday’s question: Who is the unsung hero of this Red Sox team?

• Thursday’s question: Who’s the Red Sox player we’ll be talking about after the ALDS?

• Friday’s question: What’s your prediction on how far the Red Sox will go in October (be specific)?

Sitting two games up with three to play, the Red Sox can clinch the best record in the American League with a win tonight in Baltimore paired with an Athleitcs loss to the Mariners (10:10 p.m.).

By clinching the top seed, the Red Sox will not only assure themselves home field throughout the playoffs, but will face the wild-card winner in the ALDS. That team will have already used one of its best starters to win a one-game playoff.

Then again, the current wild card leaders -- the Rays and Indians -- have each won seven straight games and could head into a potential ALDS series against the Red Sox red hot.

BALTIMORE -- Beyond determining if the Red Sox will hold on to claim the league's best record and home-field advantage, here are a few things to watch for in Boston's final series of the regular season, a three-game set against the Baltimore Orioles:

* Koji Uehara needs one strikeout to reach 100 for the season and become the eighth reliever in Sox history to strike out 100 or more.

Greg Harris is the last Sox reliever to record 100 strikeouts in a season, in 1993, and Dick Radatz did it four times, including a club record for relievers of 181 in 1964. But in all seven previous instances, the relievers with 100-plus K's threw more than 100 innings; Uehara has pitched 72 1/3 innings.

* More Koji: Uehara is averaging 12.32 strikeouts per nine innings, second in club history among Sox relievers to Jonathan Papelbon's 12.96 K's per 9 in 2007. Only three Sox relievers ever have averaged better than 12 K's per 9. Lee Smith was at 12.23 in 1989 and Papelbon was at 12.17 in 2011.

* David Ortiz, who drove in two runs Wednesday for his seventh 100-RBI season, needs one more home run to finish with his seventh 30-homer season. Mike Napoli, who hasn't played since last Friday, needs one more home run to match his season total of 24 last season.

Ortiz and Napoli are the only Sox players with 20 or more home runs this season, the fewest since 1997, when Mo Vaughn hit 35 and Nomar Garciaparra hit 30. In 2003, the Sox had six players who hit 20 or more.

* With a .307 batting average, Ortiz is the only .300 hitter in the Sox lineup at the moment. But there are five other Sox players within five percentage points of hitting .300 entering the final weekend: Jacoby Ellsbury is at .299, Shane Victorino .297, Daniel Nava and Dustin Pedroia .296, and Mike Carp is at .295. Only Carp among that group does not have enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title.

Ortiz would have to go hitless in his final 13 at-bats to fall below .300. Only three times since 2000 have the Sox had just one .300 hitter: Adrian Gonzalez (2012), Manny Ramirez (2006) and Ramirez (2001). Gonzalez, of course, was traded before the end of the season.

* With his next double, Jarrod Saltalamacchia will set a club record for catchers with 40. The Sox have five players with 30 or more doubles, and three players could join that number: Nava (29), Stephen Drew (28) and Victorino (26).

* Take a look at Saltalamacchia's slash line entering the weekend compared to 2012:

2012 -- .222/.288/.454/.742

2013 -- .272/.338/.465/.804

Saltalamacchia's batting average jump from .222 to .272 (50 percentage points) is the biggest improvement among catchers with at least 400 plate appearances over each of the past two seasons, and the sixth-biggest jump among any MLB players with the same qualifications. His OPS jump of .062 is the second-highest improvement among catchers with the same qualifiers from last season.

* Victorino, by the way, is the only player in Sox history with 15-plus home runs, 20-plus stolen bases and 10-plus sacrifice hits. It has been done 17 times by 15 different players since division play began in 1969, but Victorino had far fewer plate appearances (527) than most of the players on the list.

* And the Sox have been successful in their past 37 stolen base attempts, dating to Aug. 9. Orioles catcher Matt Wieters ranks fourth in the AL with a caught stealing percentage of 35.3 percent, throwing out 24 of 68 attempted base stealers.

As of noon today, Red Sox fans can register for a chance to buy tickets to potential American League Championship Series and/or the World Series games at Fenway Park.

No tickets will be available for purchase at the Fenway Park ticket office.

Go to redsox.com to register.

Here are some of the details provide by the team:

Fans will be notified of their selection for ALCS games via e-mail on October 2. Those chosen will have a chance to purchase tickets for that series on Thursday, October 3 at noon. Fans with disabilities may call (877) RED-SOX9 to purchase accessible seating (while supplies last). The Red Sox' TTY number is 617-226-6644.

For those not selected in the random online drawing, or those without internet access, a limited number of tickets will be sold via automated phone (888-REDSOX6) beginning at 2 p.m. on October 3.

There will be a 4 ticket limit per fan for the ALCS games. Ticket prices for that series range from $55 to $230.

Registrants not selected in the ALCS drawing or those who register after noon on Monday, September 30, will be eligible for a possible World Series drawing. Sale dates for potential 2013 World Series games played at Fenway Park will be announced at a later date.

In this week's "State of the Nation," Gordon Edes projects the Red Sox's potential starting rotation for the ALDS, and breaks down which positional players could make the roster.

DENVER -- For the Red Sox, there is one question for Jacoby Ellsbury that trumps all others: How confident is he that he will be able to play when the AL Division Series opens a week from Friday?

“I’ll be ready,’’ Ellsbury said Wednesday night. “If I wasn’t [confident of that], I wouldn’t be playing right now.’’

Wearing a protective plate over his shoe slightly bigger than the one he was wearing when he fouled a ball off his right foot and sustained a small fracture of the navicular bone, Ellsbury returned to the Sox lineup for the first time in 16 games Wednesday night. He lined a single to finish off a seven-pitch at-bat leading off the game, grounded out to second in the second inning, and drew a walk in the fourth. He scored both times he reached base, and handled his only chance in the field before manager John Farrell replaced him with Jackie Bradley Jr. in the bottom of the fourth.

The plan coming into the game was for Ellsbury to have three plate appearances.

“It was a nice game back,’’ he said. “Definitely felt excited by it. Felt pretty good out there, as far as seeing the ball and in the outfield.’’

Ellsbury said he’s still experiencing soreness.

“It’s a healing bone,’’ he said. “It doesn’t heal itself in a week. I was happy to get out there and play, run around. I kind of did everything I needed to do. Sprint down the line, run for a ball in the gap, just do everything I need to do. The plan was to give me three ABs. I got ‘em early today. It was good.’’

Ellsbury was pleased at his timing at the plate despite the prolonged layoff.

“Pretty good,’’ he said. “Saw the ball well. First at-bat, fouled off a couple of breaking balls, got another breaking ball, put it in play. My second at-bat, got into a good hitter’s count, 2 and 0, put a good swing on it, and my last AB, saw a lot of changeups, laid off those, so I pretty much saw all the pitches, saw the ball really well and thought my timing was pretty good considering I’d missed some time.’’

Ellsbury was examined Tuesday by Dr. Thomas Clanton, the foot specialist in Denver who had confirmed the team’s original diagnosis of a small fracture at the top of the bone, much less severe than the fracture that sidelined Dustin Pedroia for more than half a season in 2010. Clanton gave Ellsbury the green light to return.

Ellsbury said he plans to play this weekend in Baltimore, but how much is still to be determined. The Sox want to see how the foot responds to Wednesday night’s action first.

“That was important to me, to get back as soon as possible and get into some games before the postseason starts,’’ he said. “I’m definitely very pleased. I know I’m pleased, the team’s pleased that the doc said I could go out and play tonight.’’

How concerned was he, prior to seeing Clanton the first time, that the recovery might take longer?

“Most cases are longer,’’ he said, “but we were pretty optimistic that I would recover fast and be back on the field before [the end of] the regular season. We felt that from Day 1. I know they were pleased with how fast everything healed up. It’s just good to get back out there before the postseason starts.’’

Ellsbury said he is wearing a specially designed shoe that includes some protective insets. What was disappointing, he said, was that he was wearing a protective guard on the shoe when he was struck by the foul ball, but it found a gap less than the width of his finger and struck the bone.

DENVER -- Dabbling in the National League is a typically pleasurable experience for the Red Sox, and this season was no exception.

The Sox completed the regularly scheduled portion of their interaction with their NL brethren by thrashing the Rockies 15-5 before a sellout crowd at Coors Field of 48,775, drawn in large part to say farewell to Todd Helton, who wore purple in all 17 of his big league seasons.

The fans got their promised bobbleheads, and Helton gave ‘em something to remember him by, cranking a long home run off Jake Peavy in his first at-bat and narrowly missing a second, with the ball hitting off the left-field wall for a double.

But the Sox hardly came away empty-handed after winning for the 14th time in 20 games against NL teams, improving their record to a major league-best 130-70 in interleague play since 2003. They reduced their magic number for clinching the league’s best record to two with just three games to play. The Oakland Athletics lost to the Los Angeles Angels to fall two games behind; the Detroit Tigers are three back after beating the Minnesota Twins Wednesday.

"It’s something that I don’t want to say has become on the forefront of guys’ minds," manager John Farrell said, “but it’s another goal guys have in front of them. It’s a motivator inside a game to put together a strong game and a good brand of baseball. That’s what we hope to do on this trip, and to finish out the season with the best record would be a further statement these guys are making."

So if the Sox want to see another NL team this season, they can still arrange to do so: The World Series begins in 27 days.

No sense getting ahead of ourselves, which has been a working template for the Sox all season. The business immediately at hand has been a priority from day one, and that was no different here Wednesday night. In addition to winning, here’s what the Sox accomplished, loosely arranged in order of importance:

• Jacoby Ellsbury made a successful return to the field after a 16-game absence. Wearing a protective plate on his shoe to protect the small fracture in his right foot, Ellsbury lined a single and scored in his first at-bat, grounded out and walked and scored in the fourth before being lifted in the bottom of the inning.

"He’s much improved," Farrell said. “I can’t say he’s completely 100 percent, but it’s not to the point where it’s holding him back on the bases, in the field or in the box. A good step."

• Will Middlebrooks, locked in a 5-for-41 slump despite a double Tuesday night, broke out of it in grand fashion with a three-run, opposite-field home run in the fifth and a grand slam off Roy Oswalt in the eighth. The seven RBIs are a career high for Middlebrooks; the slam was his second this season and the third of his career.

"It’s been a tough couple of weeks," Middlebrooks said. "It’s been a tough year. But at this point of the year, man, it’s not about me. It’s about winning for us."

Middlebrooks said he was surprised by Oswalt’s off-speed pitch on the slam.

"I thought it was going to go foul," he said. "How it stayed fair, I don’t know.

"He fooled me. He threw me that slow curveball. I was late on the heater before that, so I thought he was going to come with another heater. Sixty-four, sixty-five mile an hour curveball. I was just trying to stay in the at-bat."

• Franklin Morales, fighting for a spot on the postseason roster, made a compelling case for himself by picking off Michael Cuddyer before throwing a pitch, then pumping 95 mph fastballs to whiff Helton, a former teammate on the Rockies.

“I think the fact that he’s put the physical issues behind him, and you look at probably the last nine to 10 appearances for him, the power to the stuff has increased," Farrell said. "And, obviously, his pickoff is a weapon, and he comes in against a hot hitter and shuts him down."

• Peavy, for whom Coors Field has never been a comfortable habitat, got his work in and the victory, throwing six innings. He began and ended nicely -- three up, three down in the first and sixth -- with a lot of hits, runs and Helton’s home run in between.

"He had to grind through it, the way the ball was flying in here tonight," Farrell said. "Much like we’ve seen, he doesn’t back down, doesn’t give in. He gave us six blue-collar innings tonight."

Farrell has not disclosed his rotation for the postseason, but Peavy would figure to be a strong candidate to start a fourth game in the division series if necessary, following Jon Lester, John Lackey and Clay Buchholz, in that order. He threw 110 pitches Wednesday night in what will be his last in-game tuneup, though he figures to pitch in next Wednesday’s intrasquad game.

"I honestly felt as good tonight as [previously]," Peavy said. “It just stinks pitching here, especially when those balls are cold and humidified up. We won’t get into that, but I promise you those balls were in the humidifier tonight, which is A-OK because I’ll take our guys swinging when the ballpark was playing like it was."

For good measure, Peavy also doubled for the first hit by a Sox pitcher in 24 at-bats this season. Peavy’s hit triggered a rally capped by Shane Victorino’s three-run home run that broke a 4-4 tie in the fourth.

"When a pitcher gets a hit, it breaks your spirit as the opposing pitcher because you’re supposed to get that guy out," Peavy said. "Being able to contribute a little bit that way was fun, brought me back to a few years back when I enjoyed doing that a lot [while playing in the National League]."

• David Ortiz made it through two games of playing first base without incident and doubled home two runs in the first inning, giving him 100 RBIs for the seventh time, which ranks third all-time in Red Sox history. Only Ted Williams (nine) and Jim Rice (eight) have more. With Ortiz putting on his glove, regular first baseman Mike Napoli, who needed the break to alleviate the plantar fasciitis condition in his left foot, will have had six days off before he makes his expected return to the lineup Friday in Baltimore.

• Jarrod Saltalamacchia, having the best September of his life, went 4-for-5 for his second four-hit game this season and is batting .424 (14-for-33) with 10 RBIs in his past nine games.

• Ryan Dempster, who is transitioning to the bullpen, made his second relief appearance and pitched a scoreless ninth.

And in a great gesture of respect, at least 10 Sox players remained in front of their dugout to offer their congratulations to Helton as he made one final victory lap around the field.

DENVER -- For the occasion Wednesday, they passed out bobblehead dolls.

That was for Todd Helton's last game as a member of the Colorado Rockies at home. Jacoby Ellsbury's return to the Red Sox lineup on the same night was just a coincidence.

With all due respect, the Sox are much more interested in Ellsbury's return than Helton's farewell.

"We're all looking forward to seeing Jacoby back on the field," manager John Farrell said, "but probably no one more than Jacoby himself. He's been chomping at the bit to get back on the field."

On Tuesday, Farrell said, Ellsbury was re-examined by Dr. Thomas Clanton, the foot specialist who originally confirmed the Sox diagnosis of a small fracture of the navicular bone in Ellsbury's right foot. Clanton cleared him to resume playing, Farrell said, after a 16-game absence. The major leagues' leading base-stealer (52 steals) and elite defender in center field (most of the defensive metrics list him as the best at his position this season) was back at the top of the Sox lineup, batting leadoff.

"We'd like to have him get three at-bats and five innings in center field," Farrell said. "That's a reasonable goal for his first game back."

And if Ellsbury wants to test the foot on the basepaths, that's up to him, Farrell said.

"If he feels comfortable, yeah," Farrell said when asked if Ellsbury has the green light to run. "All the running drills he's gone through, he comes in here hopefully free of mind that he can't further [aggravate] the injury. He might deal with soreness from time to time; we expect that. But prior to his reaggravating it [in New York], he was still dealing with soreness and managed it. Now he resumes."

Ellsbury, who was batting .320 in his previous 17 games before shutting it down on Sept. 6, is batting .299 overall, just a percentage point shy of his third .300 season in the big leagues. Farrell said the Sox will try to get him as many at-bats as possible this weekend in Baltimore.

The Sox didn't exactly falter in his absence, going 10-6. Dustin Pedroia filled in nicely in the leadoff spot, batting .327 (16 for 49) with 8 runs scored in that role.

But Ellsbury changes the dynamic, Farrell said.

"He can impact a game, obviously, as soon as he gets on base," Farrell said. "He's a threat on every pitch that's thrown, he's got the potential to steal. What's been most impressive with his running game is his efficiency: 52 steals, only 4 caught. He's astute. It really comes into play how pitchers might choose to attack hitters while he's on the basepaths. [That's] in addition to his range in center field. He's a very good player on both sides of the ball."