"John Smoltz was satisfied with every aspect of the pitch that turned his home debut at Fenway Park into a 6-0 Red Sox loss to the Oakland A's.

Smoltz had two outs and two on in the fourth inning last night and was feeling confident he could limit the A's to the one run they scored earlier in the frame. The right-hander was facing Mark Ellis, the ninth batter in the Oakland order, and he conspired with catcher Jason Varitek on a splitter down and in.

The splitter did what Smoltz wanted it to do, but Ellis didn't. Ellis followed the pitch and drove the ball off the wall in left-center for a double that gave the A's a 3-0 lead. Smoltz' only lament was that bad things happen to good pitches.

"In that situation I felt it was a good enough pitch to not have that result," Smoltz said. "To get a base hit, but not have that result. The ball went down and strayed in and was down when he made a great adjustment.

"When I made the pitch on the mound, that was the right pitch and for him to hit it off the wall was like . . . unfortunately it didn't work out and two runs scored."

Smoltz went six innings and gave up five earned runs on 10 hits and a walk. He recorded three strikeouts en route to his second loss. Even while his ERA ballooned to 6.60, Smoltz (0-2) thought he turned in the strongest outing of the three he has made in the majors this season.

"I felt in control. I threw the ball really well and didn't have much to show for it tonight," he said. "As mad as I get, I have to make sure I realize that I'm making a lot of progress even though the results don't look like that."

Smoltz and Oakland rookie Brett Anderson were engaged in a compelling pitchers duel through the first three innings. But the A's went off-script in the fourth. The Oakland batters were up hacking away at first-pitch fastballs to the point where Smoltz resorted to his secondary pitches.

Cleanup hitter Jason Giambi started Smoltz' troubles with a double to left-center and moved up to third base on a perfect bunt single down the third base line by catcher Kurt Suzuki. Nomar Garciaparra, a notorious first-pitch swinger, drove in the first run with a single to left.

"The scouting was the opposite on that, the scouting report was that they would be very patient," Smoltz said. "Giambi hits a backdoor slider off the wall and that's why he's hit as many home runs as he has.""