BOSTON -- As if the Red Sox didn't have enough hitting, now

the lower part of the lineup is heating up.

Led by Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Carl Crawford, their last four

batters had seven RBIs and eight hits as Boston pounded Seattle

pitchers for a 12-8 win that sent the Mariners to a franchise-worst

15-game losing streak on Sunday.

"Production, one through nine, is what we need," said

Saltalamacchia, who drove in four runs, "and that's what we've

got."

With help from the top of the order to the bottom, the Red Sox

swept the Mariners, won their 17th game in their last 20 and kept

their three-game lead in the AL East over the New York Yankees, who

beat the Oakland Athletics 7-5.

The Red Sox lead the majors with a .279 batting average. And Tim Wakefield (6-3) has benefited from that with his teammates scoring

at least 11 runs in four of his last eight starts.

Wakefield joined Roger Clemens as the only pitchers to strike

out 2,000 batters with Boston when catcher Saltalamacchia held on

to Mike Carp's foul tip to end the sixth then met him at the

first-base line and handed him the ball.

He also moved one win away from his 200th victory. But the

44-year-old knuckleballer left after giving up Brendan Ryan's grand

slam that cut the lead to 11-7 with one out in the seventh.

The standing ovation he got when he struck out Carp to reach the

milestone was "pretty special, very emotional for me," Wakefield

said. "I had no idea that it had happened and Salty was walking

toward me. I'm like, 'what's going on.' He said, 'Congratulations

on 2,000 strikeouts.' It was a very cool ovation."

The Mariners haven't had many enjoyable moments lately, with

each result the same as the previous one -- a loss.

"It seems like once again it's Groundhog Day," Ryan said.

"This is definitely frustrating. There aren't too many laughs now.

There shouldn't be."

Boston's powerhouse lineup had 17 hits with Saltalamacchia,

Adrian Gonzalez and Crawford getting three each. Crawford is

hitting .330 in his last 27 games and .375 in six games since

coming off the disabled list.

"He's gotten himself comfortable real quick," Red Sox manager

Terry Francona said.

"I thought he was comfortable before he went on the DL,"

Saltalamacchia said. "He was starting to get his swing back. He's

a career .300 hitter. He's not going to all of a sudden start

hitting .220."

Michael Pineda (8-7) allowed five runs in the first after

Seattle took a 2-0 lead and gave up seven runs in 4 1/3 innings.