OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – The Oakland Athletics needed Barry Zito’s best against Pedro Martinez and Boston’s loaded lineup.

They didn’t get it.

Working on three days’ rest for the first time in his career and with Oakland’s season on the line, the lanky left-hander gave up two big homers in a 4-3 loss to the Red Sox on Monday night.

Boston won the best-of-five AL division series 3-2, rallying from a 2-0 deficit. It was another demoralizing early exit from the playoffs for the A’s.

They have failed to get out of the first round the past four years, going 0-for-9 when they had a chance to clinch a series – the longest such slump in major league history.

Zito was the last of Oakland’s “Big Three” starters left – Mark Mulder missed the series with a leg injury and Tim Hudson was knocked out of Game 4 before the second inning because of a strained muscle in his left side.

Zito retired his first nine batters, then ran into trouble in Boston’s four-run sixth.

On a full count to Jason Varitek leading off the inning, Zito had to throw a strike, and Varitek clobbered it over the wall in left field for a tying homer. Then, after Johnny Damon walked and Todd Walker was hit by a pitch, Manny Ramirez hit a three-run homer to left to break a 3-for-18 slump.

Zito looked forward to the challenge of pitching on short rest. He has said that’s a sacrifice that has to be made in the postseason.

The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner kept his pitch count down early and worked ahead in the count against a remarkable Red Sox lineup that led the majors in almost every offensive category this season. His nasty curveball was on, just as in his Game 2 victory when he struck out nine in seven impressive innings.

Mulder and Hudson sat side by side on the dugout steps anxiously watching Zito.

He was done after six innings, having allowed four runs on four hits with four strikeouts and two walks.

Meanwhile, Martinez, undefeated in six postseason starts, was still on the mound. He pitched into the eighth and left after Billy McMillon’s pinch-hit single scored Chris Singleton to make it 4-3.

The A’s loaded the bases in the ninth, but Derek Lowe closed it out for Boston.

It was the first time in postseason history that two Cy Young Award winners faced each other in a decisive Game 5 or Game 7, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Zito’s first postseason chore might be shaving his beard. Zito and Ted Lilly both grew their facial hair and had a pact not to shave until the A’s were done, which they hoped would be late October.

“We’re growing it out until the end of the playoffs to be all scraggly and nasty,” Zito said before the playoffs began. “Go out there and intimidate hitters. Look mean. You feel meaner.”

On this night, Martinez was by far the meanest one.

AP-ES-10-06-03 2347EDT