Tribe avoids Fenway sweep with 8-4 win over Boston

The Indians had a season-high 18 hits against Daisuke Matsuzaka and three relievers.

BOSTON (AP) — Paul Byrd won his fifth straight decision and extended his streak without issuing a walk to 43 innings, and the Cleveland Indians came from behind for an 8-4 win over the Boston Red Sox Wednesday night.

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for Boston (36-16), which has the best record in the majors. Cleveland (32-19), with the AL’s second-best record, avoided being swept in the three-game series.

Boston led 2-0 after four innings, but Cleveland tied the game in the fifth and went ahead 6-2 in the sixth against Daisuke Matsuzaka (7-3). Kelly Shoppach, who hit a solo homer in the eighth, had a career high four of the Indian’s season-high 18 hits.

Byrd (6-1) threw first-pitch strikes to 25 of 27 batters. He has gone six games since his last walk to Kenny Lofton of Texas on April 26. The only Cleveland pitcher in the last 50 years with a longer streak is Dick Donovan, who went 451⁄3 innings without a walk in 1963.

Matsuzaka (7-3) had won his previous six decisions but was driven from the game in the sixth when he allowed four runs despite getting help from a poor call by second base umpire Rick Reed.

Go-ahead rally

Former Boston right fielder Trot Nixon led off with a double and scored the tie-breaking run on David Dellucci’s double. Josh Barfield singled to left, scoring Dellucci.

Shoppach then singled Barfield to second. But Barfield rounded the base and was called out trying to get back when left fielder Manny Ramirez threw behind him to Dustin Pedroia, who swiped at the runner. Barfield and manager Eric Wedge argued and replays showed Pedroia missed Barfield by a wide margin.

Two pitches later, Grady Sizemore hit his ninth homer, giving Cleveland a 6-2 lead and bringing Kyle Snyder in for Matsuzaka, who allowed 12 hits. That matched Curt Schilling’s performance of May 23 against the New York Yankees for the most hits given up by a Boston pitcher this year.

Kevin Youkilis extended his hitting streak to a career-best 22 games, but his stretch of multihit games ended at nine. He singled in the third but made a costly out in the seventh when the Red Sox loaded the bases with no outs but didn’t score. Youkilis struck out for the second out before David Ortiz lined the ball just foul past the right field pole then was retired on a soft liner.

Mike Lowell added a two-run homer, his 10th, in the eighth.