updated 10:29 p.m. ET Sept. 26, 2007

BOSTON - Mike Lowell got a souvenir of his best season and drove the Red Sox closer to another memorable achievement — their first division title in 12 years.

With Boston’s magic number down to two, that could come Thursday night for a team that is improving its hitting and health at just the right time.

“We were happy being in the playoffs with the wild card,” David Ortiz said after Lowell drove in five runs in an 11-6 win over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday. “But we played good all year. We wanted to see if we could win the division. It hasn’t been done in a while.”

Lowell led a 17-hit attack with three singles and kept the ball that gave him the team record for RBIs by a third baseman on a two-run single in the third. He finished the night with 116 RBIs, surpassing Butch Hobson’s 112 in 1977.

“I take a lot of pride in it,” Lowell said. “I just didn’t know about it until about two weeks ago when I got close. There’s been a lot of good players that have played third base in this organization. I’ll treasure it.”

The Red Sox increased their AL East lead to three games over the New York Yankees, who clinched a playoff spot by winning at Tampa Bay. Boston won for the fourth time in five games after a four-game losing streak in which it struggled at the plate, scoring just eight runs and allowing its lead to shrink to 1½ games.

Boston begins a four-game series against Minnesota at home Thursday night that ends the regular season.

Lowell increased his batting average to a career-best .326 and has avoided his usual second-half slump. He’s done an outstanding job filling in for Manny Ramirez as cleanup hitter. Ramirez missed 24 games with a strained muscle in his left side before batting second Tuesday and Wednesday and going 4-for-5.

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“He’s been great all year,” Dustin Pedroia, one of four Red Sox with three hits, said of Lowell. “We’ve counted on him all year. Manny gets hurt and Mike steps up.”

Now Ramirez is back. So is first baseman Kevin Youkilis, who missed seven games with a bruised right wrist before pinch-hitting in Tuesday night’s 7-3 win over Oakland and going 1-for-3 Wednesday.

“They got a few guys back and they’re gaining momentum into the postseason,” Oakland manager Bob Geren said, “just what they need to do.”

The Red Sox will play the Los Angeles Angels or Cleveland Indians in the AL division series.

Ramirez went 3-for-3 with an RBI and two runs one day after going 1-for-2. He went to right field with two of his hits and to center field with the other two.

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