CLEVELAND – Veteran knuckleballer Tim Wakefield entered Tuesday sporting a 1-4 record and a hefty 6.02 ERA.

No matter. He was facing the Triple-A Indians.

With Wakefield’s knuckler dancing and Cleveland hitters flailing once again, Boston took the second of a four-game series at Progressive Field via a 3-2 decision.

The Indians managed two runs (one earned) on just four hits over 7 1/3 innings against Wakefield, who won for just the second time in nine starts (12 appearances).

“Even with guys that have faced him before, it’s difficult,” said Cleveland manager Manny Acta. “I can’t imagine what it’s like for the young guys that have never seen him before.”

It wasn’t pretty.

After allowing an unearned run in the opening inning, Wakefield was on cruise control, retiring 15 straight after the error with one out in the first. A solo home run from Shelley Duncan in the seventh inning accounted for Cleveland’s other run.

Cleveland starter David Huff (2-7, 5.46 ERA) was a hard-luck loser, allowing three runs (none of them earned) on eight hits, while striking out six over six innings.

All of Huff’s runs came in a disastrous fourth inning for the Indians that was jumpstarted by an unfathomable error on center fielder Trevor Crowe.

With two outs and the Indians in front 1-0, Victor Martinez lifted a fly ball deep to center that Crowe got under but dropped at the wall.

Unable to shake off the misfortune, Huff allowed hits to the next four batters he faced, as Boston scored three times to take control of the game.

“(Crowe) looked like he just covered his eyes with his glove,” Acta said. “But after that, (Huff’s) got to make pitches and not allow four hits in a row. That’s part of the game. You have to put that behind you. He was one pitch away from getting out of the inning.”

Crowe wound up making a diving catch to end the inning, one of two on the night, but the one he flubbed was the one that stuck with him and the Indians, who lost for the 14^th time in 18 games at Progressive Field.

“Bottom line is that it was a routine fly ball and I just dropped it,” Crowe said. “It’s difficult, especially with the way Huff was pitching. That’s really the only time they got to him.

“It’s difficult, very difficult. I feel really poorly for Huff.”

Huff admitted the error rattled him, but agreed with Acta’s assessment of how he should have handled himself after.

“It happens. It’s part of baseball,” he said. “He made two other catches that were unbelievable. I need to be able to refocus and get the next guy out and I had trouble doing that.”

Cleveland put the tying run on base in both the eighth and ninth innings but not so shockingly failed to score on both occasions.

Pinch hitter Travis Hafner produced a one-out double in the eighth and was lifted for pinch runner Anderson Hernandez, who stole third with two out and stayed there after Shin-Soo Choo walked and Hideki Okajima came on to retire Austin Kearns on a liner to right.

Okajima walked Russell Branyan with one out in the ninth before striking out Duncan and getting Luis Valbuena to ground to second to end the game.

It was a historic night for Wakefield, who surpassed Roger Clemens as Boston’s all-time leader in innings pitched (2,777). Wakefield’s 177 wins since 1995 are the third-most over the span, trailing only Mike Mussina (218) and Andy Pettitte (199).

The Indians fell to 3-11 against the American League East and 1-28 when they are outhit by their opponent.

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.

Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball was too much for the Indians in a 3-2 Cleveland loss at Progressive Field on Tuesday night.

Wakefield allowed just one earned run over 7 1/3 innings to win for just the second time this season.

CT photo by Bruce Bishop.

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — An Avon woman was LifeFlighted from the scene after she crashed a motorcycle she was riding into a brick wall.

The accident was reported a little before 12:30 p.m. today. According to police, the woman is 55 years old and has a learner’s permit for the motorcycle. North Ridgeville officers had not completed their report, so the woman’s identity is not yet available.

She crashed the motorcycle into a brick wall bordering the North Ridgeville Education Center on Center Ridge Road.

According to North Ridgeville fire Lt. Jon Graf, the woman was practicing on the motorcycle in a parking lot when she lost control. He estimated her speed when she hit the wall was about 40 mph.

Graf couldn’t say what her injuries were or how badly hurt she was, adding just that she was LifeFlighted “out of concern over the mechanism of injury,” basically because motorcycle accidents are notorious for being life threatening.

Graf said he didn’t know what type of motorcycle she was riding but said that it “looked like a Harley.”

Check back at Chroniclet.com for more on this story as it becomes available.

CLEVELAND — The Red Sox rolled out right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka on Mon­day and the Indians promptly rolled snake eyes.

With Matsuzaka doing a number on Cleveland hitters all night, the Indians dropped a 4-1 decision to Boston in the first of a four-game series at Progressive Field.

Matsuzaka, who spent the first month of the season on the disabled list with a neck strain, allowed just four hits, while striking out five over eight innings.

“We just couldn’t get any­thing going offensively against Matsuzaka,” said Indians manager Manny Acta. “Our plan to get his pitch count high, he just put that aside by being aggressive and putting our hitters down.”

The Indians, who mus­tered six hits, advanced just one runner to second base off Matsuzaka, and it was on a steal from Trevor Crowe after the center fielder walked with two outs in the third inning.

Cleveland got its lone run in the ninth inning on a solo home run from Austin Kearns off fill-in closer Daniel Bard, who assumed the role when Jonathan Papelbon was placed on the bereavement list prior to the game.

More photos below.

Matsuzaka extended the misery of an Indians offense that has struggled for the majority of the season by being aggressive around the strike zone, something the Japanese-born right-hander has avoided in the past.

“He mixed his speeds pretty well and he did a good job of making the pitches when he had to,” said Cleveland shortstop Jason Donald, who reached base twice and had one of his team’s hits off Matsuzaka. “He’s a good pitcher. He’s with the Red Sox for a reason.

“There isn’t anybody giving away at-bats. No one is trying not to get a hit. Obviously the results aren’t what we want, but you have to continue to compete.”

The Indians got starting pitching as well, with Fausto Carmona continuing his solid first half by allowing just two earned runs on five hits over six-plus innings. Carmona walked six and had runners aboard in five of the six innings he worked, yet the right-hander was still able to keep his club in the game.

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“I think Fausto has really come a long way in keeping his composure and not letting the big inning beat him,” Acta said. “In the past, he would selfdestruct when he got runners on base. He kept us in the game.”

With the lack of run support, Carmona would have needed to pitch like Matsuzaka to have earned the win.

“I want runs but I can’t think about that,” Carmona said. “I have to think about pitching. I think I had trouble today with making the first pitch a strike.” Boston got the only run it needed in the opening inning after former Cleveland minor leaguer Marco Scutaro started the game with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly from Kevin Youkilis.

Boston added an unearned run in the third that began with a throwing error on Carmona. A sacrifice fly from Victor Martinez put Boston in front 3-0 in the seventh.

Martinez went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI in his first game back in Cleveland after being traded to Boston at the deadline last year.

The Red Sox scored their final run in the eighth after the first three hitters reached base off Indians reliever Hector Ambriz Progressive Field has not been kind to the Indians, who are 8-15 there and have lost 13 of their last 17 games at home.

Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.