Texas spoils it for Boston’s Wakefield

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Tim Wakefield’s milestone appearance for Boston ended with his shortest outing of the season and kept the Red Sox from getting closer to the American League East leader.

The knuckleball specialist, in his 500th game for Boston, gave up seven runs in a span of nine batters in the second inning, and the Texas Rangers went on to a 15-8 win Saturday night that ended Boston’s winning streak at four games.

Boston stayed 2 1/2 games behind AL East-leading Tampa Bay, which lost at Toronto.

Nelson Cruz had two home runs, a double and five runs batted in for the Rangers. Josh Hamilton had two hits and drove in three runs to push his major league-best RBI total to 124.

Rookie Matt Harrison (7-3) struck out four in six innings and left with a 13-4 lead.

Texas had lost eight consecutive games to Boston this season, getting outscored 75-36.

Hamilton had a two-run single in the second inning before Hank Blalock hit a run-scoring single that put Texas ahead, 7-1, and knocked out Wakefield (8-10).