OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- After a long night, Barry Zito made sure the Boston Red Sox had a long trip home.

Zito was dominant for seven innings and the Oakland Athletics took advantage of some sloppy defense in the second to post a 5-1 triumph over Boston in Game Two of their American League Division Series.

Just over 13 hours after Oakland posted a thrilling 5-4, 12-inning victory, Zito came out and dominated Boston. The 25-year-old lefthander allowed three singles, two doubles and two walks.

Striking out nine, Zito (1-0) ran into trouble just once but got slumping Manny Ramirez on a line drive that left fielder Jose Guillen ran down in the gap to end the third inning.

"They made him work for everything," Oakland manager Ken Macha said. "They have an extremely dangerous lineup and led the league in hitting. And they make you throw strikes, so to pitch seven strong innings only to give up one run, that's a great job against that lineup."

"Zito pitched a great game," Boston shortstop Nomar Garciaparra added. "He put us against the wall, but we've been there before. But we need to play much better. This series is now all about getting the momentum back."

Zito improved to 3-1 with a 2.03 ERA in four career postseason starts.

"He was throwing a great breaking ball today," Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz said. "It was moving in and out."

"If you go out in a game and you don't have your changeup and your fastball command is real good, you change accordingly," Zito said. "There was never a plan to throw curveballs to everybody, but when it's working pretty good, it's hard to get away from it because you second guess yourself and say, I don't know why I didn't throw my curveball there. It was pretty good today."

Chad Bradford worked a scoreless eighth and Keith Foulke , who threw three hitless innings in the series opener, cruised through the ninth.

Boston starter Tim Wakefield (0-1) had one poor inning - the second, when he allowed all five runs. A two-run double by Eric Byrnes that was misplayed by Ramirez put Oakland on top, 3-0, and a two-run throwing error by second baseman Todd Walker capped the frame.

Wakefield lasted six innings and allowed five runs - three earned - and four hits. He walked three, hit a batter and struck out seven. In four Division Series starts with Boston, Wakefield is 0-3 with an 11.05 ERA.

"I can't explain how the pitch works," Wakefield said. "My pitches usually go up and down, but today my pitches were darting all over the place. I made some adjustments, but they came too late. I did terrible."

Game Three is Saturday in Boston, with the Athletics looking to win a postseason series for the first time since 1990. The A's send lefthander Ted Lilly to the mound against Boston's Derek Lowe , who pitched in relief in Game One.

Boston, which has lost 10 consecutive postseason games against Oakland, rallied from an 0-2 deficit in a 1999 Division Series. The A's also blew a 2-0 Division Series lead against the New York Yankees in 2001.

"This is awesome, being up 2-0," Oakland third baseman Eric Chavez said. "We feel very confident here. Every game counts in the postseason and they are all big. We are not going to let down, we are too good of a team. To win one game is going to be pretty tough. We just have to go out and take advantage of the situation."

Boston wasted a leadoff walk in the second and Oakland broke open the game in the bottom half. Wakefield got the first out of the inning but walked Guillen. After a passed ball, Hernandez - the hero of Game One - put the A's on top with a single to right.

Jermaine Dye was hit by a pitch and Byrnes lofted a long fly ball to left that Ramirez failed to get a read on, then bobbled on the warning track. Hernandez and Dye scored for a 3-0 lead before Wakefield walked Mark Ellis . After a groundout put both runners in scoring position, the Boston starter got Chavez to ground to second base, but Walker fired wide of first, allowing both runners to score.

"That gave them the momentum right there," Walker said. "It was my fault. I tried to make a better play than I should have. I should have just ate the ball and not thrown it. We then go to the dugout three runs down, not five."

"It was a bad pitch, a mistake," Wakefield said of the offering to Byrnes. "I didn't think Byrnes hit it that good or far. The wind got it, but I didn't see the play. In that inning, I left our guys too long on the field. We could have been out of the inning sooner if I had pitched better."

Boston tried to come back in the third as Doug Mirabelli doubled and scored on Johnny Damon 's two-base hit. Garciaparra walked, but Walker bounced to first, moving up both runners. Ramirez, who was 0-for-5 and left five runners on in the series opener, flied to Guillen.

"Mirabelli hit the double and then (Zito) made a little bit of a mistake to Damon," Macha said. "Then you're in the middle of their lineup. To me, the outs he got out after that were the big ones of the game. He did a great job of going through it two, three, four, guys to keep the score just to one run."

"When you have five runs you kind of - half of you wants to go just make your pitches, get ahead, but then the other half says no, this is still a playoff game, this is still a dangerous lineup, you don't want to give them any leeway," Zito said. "I think you have to pitch the same. I had fallen into that trap for a couple of hitters and then I got back on track after that."

Boston had two aboard in the fifth, but Zito got Walker on a comebacker to end the threat. The Red Sox wasted a leadoff single in the sixth by Ramirez, but Zito finished strongly and did not allow a ball out of the infield in the seventh.

"Wake threw great, but Zito never gave us a chance to come back," Boston third baseman Bill Mueller said. "We all got five hours of sleep and both sides had to play. Are we tired? Yes. But so are they."