BOSTON – Tim Wakefield’s final appearance before the All-Star team is unveiled was one to forget.

 Wakefield was knocked around by the Mariners Friday night as his knuckleball fluttered up in the strike zone a little too often in his eight innings of work. Seattle touched Wakefield up for five runs on 10 hits and he left the game trailing, 5-3. The Red Sox tied the game in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run double by Nick Green.

 “I felt I kept us in the game,” he said. “I’d like to have better results. I threw lots of strikes. The only thing I’m disappointed in is I made too many bad pitches ahead in the count.”

 The five runs were the most allowed by Wakefield since he gave up six to Toronto on May 29. The 10 hits were eclipsed only by the 11 knocked out by the L.A. Angels on May 13. The loss was the Red Sox first in Wakefield’s last six starts and the first in a Fenway start by the veteran pitcher this season.

 A key play in Wakefield’s night came in the fourth inning with the Sox ahead, 2-1. After one out, Ryan Langerhans popped up near the third base dugout. Kevin Youkilis gave a hard chase to the ball but a fan stuck up his hat and snared the ball. Youkilis would’ve had to make a great stab of the ball but the fan clearly denied him of any chance, a move that drew mocking cheers of ``it’s your fault, it’s your fault,’’ from nearby fans.

 Langerhans made Wakefield pay when he lined a double to left-center. After a second out, Rob Johnson doubled near the left-field foul line to tie the game. Ronny Cedeno, the Mariners’ ninth hitter, then smacked a two-run home run to left that gave the Mariners a 4-2 lead.

 “Sometimes the breaks go your way and tonight it just didn’t, regardless of whether (Youkilis) catches that ball or not,” Wakefield said, adding that he thought Youkilis had a chance to make the catch.

 One ball no one had a chance to stab was an eighth-inning home run by Jose Lopez that gave the Mariners a very important insurance run. The solo homer pushed Seattle’s lead to 5-3. “The last home run I gave up was just a bad pitch,’’ Wakefield said.

 Wakefield’s chances to make his first All-Star Game actually improved recently with the news that Major League Baseball is adding a 33rd player to each All-Star team. The extra player will be a pitcher with the understanding that managers could use the extra arms if the game runs over into extra innings. An innings-eating pitcher like Wakefield fits that mold perfectly. He’ll take his final start of the first half this Wednesday but won’t pitch for another nine days if he does not make the All-Star Game.

 “I haven’t had any feedback from anybody around the league, just my teammates wishing me the best and hoping I can make the team,” he said. “All I can do is go out there and try to win for us and (then) it’s up to the manager and the rest of the guys in the league to vote me in.”

 Wakefield set a Red Sox record with his 383rd career start, topping Roger Clemens. The 42-year old clearly cherishes the mark and appreciates his longevity in the game.

 “It was a pretty special night for me tonight,” he acknowledged. “It means I’ve been here a long time and gotten the opportunity and been blessed to stay healthy as long as I have and the organization has given me the ball this long. I’m very, very thankful for that and hopefully I can continue to go.”