TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Wakefield, Red Sox Fall To Rangers

ADVERTISEMENT

By STEPHEN HAWKINS The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 7, 2008

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 AL East leader.

The knuckleballer, pitching his 500th game for Boston, allowed seven runs in a span of nine batters in the second inning, and the Texas Rangers went on to a 15-8 victory Saturday night that ended Boston's four-game winning streak.

Boston stayed 2 1/2 games behind AL East-leading Tampa Bay and 5 1/2 games ahead of Minnesota in the wild-card race.
Nelson Cruz hit two towering home runs and a double with five RBIs for Texas after Wakefield was out of the game. Josh Hamilton went 2-for-4 and drove in three runs to push his majors-best RBI total to 124.

Rookie right-hander Matt Harrison struck out four in six innings and left with a 13-4 lead.

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

Hamilton had a two-run single in the second before Hank Blalock followed with an RBI single that put Texas up 7-1 and knocked out Wakefield. Reliever Chris Smith picked off Blalock to end the inning.

Wakefield retired the first five batters on flyballs before Gerald Laird doubled, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball. Wakefield then walked four of the next six batters, two of them with the bases loaded, and hit another one.

The 42-year-old Wakefield joined Bob Stanley (637 appearances) as the only players to pitch in 500 games for the Red Sox. Wakefield signed with Boston as a free agent in 1995, and has since started 363 games with 137 relief appearances.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT