Matsuzaka, Red Sox get past the Rangers

Daisuke Matsuzaka earned his seventh win of the season before leaving the game because of nausea and the Boston Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 10-6, Friday night.

Matsuzaka (7-2) gave up home runs to Frank Catalanotto and Ramon Vazquez during a five-run fourth that put the Rangers ahead, 5-4.

He struggled in the fifth, allowing the first two batters to reach base. Matsuzaka got Sammy Sosa to ground into a double play and struck out Catalanotto to end the inning.

After the inning, he could be seen in the dugout clutching his stomach. He didn’t come out for the sixth inning.

The Red Sox scored two in the fifth to take the lead and added four in the sixth to lift Matsuzaka to a win in his fourth consecutive start.

Matsuzaka gave up five runs and seven hits and matched his shortest outing of the season. He is tied for the league lead with seven wins along with teammate Josh Beckett, the Angels’ John Lackey and the Braves’ John Smoltz.

Sosa faced Matsuzaka for the first time ever and went one for four with an RBI double and a strikeout in his pursuit to become the fifth player ever to hit 600 home runs. Sosa has 598.

After Texas’ big inning, Boston took the lead for good in the fifth against reliever Wes Littleton (0-1). Kevin Youkilis singled with one out to extend his hitting streak to 17 games. David Ortiz hit a run-scoring double to tie the score, and Manny Ramirez put the Red Sox on top, 6-5, with an RBI single.

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RESULTS

* Cleveland 7, at Detroit 4: Paul Byrd (5-1) gave up four runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings to improve to 4-0 in his last six starts. Byrd, who hasn’t lost since April 21 at Tampa Bay, has made five starts in May, totaling 34 innings, and has not walked a batter.

* at Chicago 5, Tampa Bay 4: Joe Crede’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the ninth inning gave the White Sox their eighth win in their final at-bat this season. Chad Orvella walked Tadahito Iguchi and Jim Thome to start the ninth. Brian Stokes came in and struck out Jermaine Dye, but A.J. Pierzynski singled to right to load the bases. Crede then drove in Iguchi with a fly to left on the first pitch.

* Seattle 10, at Kansas City 2: Felix Hernandez pitched five strong innings for the Mariners in his third start since coming off the disabled list. He gave up a run-scoring triple to Shane Costa and an RBI double to Alex Gordon in the sixth and was replaced after a lengthy conference on the mound. The Mariners said he had tightness in the lower back.

* Oakland 3, at Baltimore 2: Dan Haren (5-2) gave up a first-inning run, then allowed only two baserunners over the next six innings in lowering his earned-run average to 1.70.

* at Minnesota 4, Toronto 3: Torii Hunter followed a two-out fielding error by Blue Jays reliever Scott Downs with an RBI single in the seventh inning to lift the Twins.

* Boston 10, at Texas 6: Daisuke Matsuzaka joined the Angels’ John Lackey, Atlanta’s John Smoltz and teammate Josh Beckett as baseball’s only seven-game winners.

* Angels 10, at New York 6: The Angels are the only AL team to hold an edge (56-52) over the Yankees since 1996.