Baltimore ? The Baltimore Orioles marked Mike Bordick’s major-league record for consecutive errorless games at shortstop with a jovial champagne toast.

And, thanks to Boston’s 4-2 victory against the Orioles, there would be no other champagne-driven celebrations in the AL East on Friday night.

Baltimore shortstop Mike Bordick fields a broken-bat grounder hit by Boston's Jason Varitek during Friday's game in Baltimore. Bordick set a major league record with his 102nd consecutive errorless game at shortstop.

Derek Lowe earned his 21st win and Nomar Garciaparra had two doubles and two RBIs, helping Boston stave off elimination for at least another day.

But this game was about Bordick, who set a major-league record with his 102nd successive errorless game at shortstop.

Bordick broke the mark set by Rey Ordonez with the New York Mets in 1999-2000. Bordick, who flawlessly handled his only four opportunities, extended his major-league mark of errorless chances at shortstop to 504.

The only close call came in the ninth inning, when Bordick had to avoid Jason Varitek’s shattered bat on a looping grounder. He fielded the spinning ball and threw out Varitek by two steps.

“I thought it was going to be a nice little one-hopper, and the next thing you know the bat goes flying by,” Bordick said. “The ball had some kind of spin on it and kicked to the right, and then I almost tripped over myself. It kind of made the play interesting.

“I tell you what, that might have been the best play I made all year.”

Bordick received a standing ovation from the crowd of 32,648 after the top of the ninth. His counterpart at shortstop, Garciaparra, was among several Red Sox who applauded while in the field.

“He deserved it. It’s a tremendous feat,” Garciaparra said. “It’s a tremendous accomplishment. His peers and everyone else respect him an awful lot. I was just clapping like everyone else was.”

Cliff Floyd homered to help Lowe win his third straight start.

Lowe (21-7) allowed two runs and 10 hits in seven innings. The right-hander, who struck out two and walked none, is 4-0 with a 1.29 ERA against Baltimore this season.

“All in all, it was a struggle,” he said. “I gave up a lot of hits.”

The 21 wins exceed his total during his first four-plus seasons, when he went 20-32 working primarily as a reliever.

“Being a setup guy, you don’t get a lot of wins, you only get losses,” Lowe said.

Jay Gibbons homered and Brook Fordyce had a season-high three hits for the Orioles, who have lost 23 of 27.

Athletics 4, Rangers 2

Oakland, Calif. The Athletics clinched their third straight playoff berth as Jermaine Dye hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the eighth inning.

Oakland’s victory and Seattle’s 8-1 loss to Anaheim guaranteed at least a wild card berth for the A’s, who won the AL West in 2000 and got the wild card with 102 victories last season. With the league’s best record at 97-57, Oakland maintained its one-game division lead over the Angels with eight games left.

Jim Mecir (6-3) got two outs in the eighth for the victory.

Angels 8, Mariners 1

Seattle Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson and Brad Fullmer homered and Anaheim cut the magic number to one for its first playoff berth since 1986.

Anaheim, coming off three losses in a four-game series at Oakland, battered Joel Pineiro (14-7) for seven runs six earned and eight hits in five innings. All three Angels’ homers came off Pineiro.

White Sox 10, Twins 2

Chicago Carlos Lee hit a three-run homer and drove in another run as Chicago took advantage of Rick Reed’s early exit to beat Minnesota.

There were no security problems at Comiskey Park, one night after a father and son came out of the stands and attacked Royals first-base coach Tom Gamboa.

Nine of Chicago’s runs came off Twins relievers after Reed left the game in the fifth inning as a precaution because of a hyperextended left knee. Jose Valentin added a solo homer for the White Sox, who climbed back to .500.

Dan Wright (13-12) gave up two runs and five hits in eight innings for his fifth victory in six starts.

Juan Rincon (0-2) took the loss.

D-Rays 11, Blue Jays 7

St. Petersburg, Fla. Tanyon Sturtze stopped his four-game losing streak and Chris Gomez hit a three-run triple.

Sturtze (4-17) gave up five runs and five hits in eight innings and tied his career high with eight strikeouts as he avoided becoming the AL’s first 18-game loser since Scott Erickson went 8-19 for Minnesota in 1993.

Esteban Loaiza (8-10) gave up a career-high nine runs and seven hits in 2 1/3 innings.

Yankees 5, Tigers 1

Detroit Alfonso Soriano drove in his 100th run, helping New York cut its magic number to one.

Roger Clemens (13-6) allowed one run, five hits and five walks in six innings, getting his 293rd career win. Clemens was hit on the left shin in the sixth by Mike Rivera’s hard comebacker, but stayed in and escaped a bases-loaded jam by retiring three straight batters.

The Yankees, who had lost four of six, have a nine-game lead over the Red Sox with nine games remaining.

Late Thursday game

Rangers 12, Mariners 7, 10 innings

Seattle Hank Blalock delivered a tiebreaking RBI single in the 10th and further damaged the fading Mariners’ postseason chances. Jay Powell (3-2) earned the victory.