BOSTON — One of the latest rumors involving the Red Sox pitching staff involves Brad Penny being traded to Atlanta for 25-year-old slugger Jeff Francoeur to add more power to the Boston lineup.

Atlanta general manager Frank Wren, however, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that Friday’s ESPN report was false. Hours later, it was reported that Philadelphia is also interested in Penny.

Whatever the case, with the way Penny pitched Friday night against the American League West Division leading Texas Rangers (32-22) and how silent Boston’s bats were, if the club wasn’t thinking of trading away Penny, it might be now.

Penny was strong over the first four innings, when he allowed just one hit, striking out three, but the Rangers racked up four hits and four runs in the momentum-swinging fifth inning to take control of the game.

When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, the Rangers had put a screeching halt to Boston’s four-game winning streak and dropped them out of a first-place tie in the East with the idle New York Yankees (32-22) with a 5-1 triumph in front of a crowd of 37,519 at Fenway Park

Penny, who struggled early in the season but was 3-0 with a 4.11 ERA in his previous five starts, allowed five runs in 5 2/3rd innings on seven hits with two walks and five strikeouts. Penny said that his final line is a bit deceiving because he had great stuff through the first four innings.

“I felt great all day,” Penny said. “My breaking ball was sharp. My location of my fastball was good but I should have pitched a lot better tonight. I’m just going to continue to work on the things I need to work on between starts.”

“His first four innings were as good as we’ve seen,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “He was throwing the ball really, really well. Then the next two, he threw 50 pitches. He left the breaking ball up…and he didn’t locate the fastball.”

Penny is now 5-2 on the season with a 5.85 ERA. He said that he is not bothered by the trade rumors.

“It has been that way my whole career,” said Penny, who signed a one-year, $5-million incentive-laden deal with the Red Sox in the offseason.

“When he’s good he can throw the ball downhill with some pretty good velocity, and that’s what I think we are starting to see more and more of,” Francona said.

Penny’s confidence may have been shaken in the fifth inning when, with runners on first and second base, it appeared that he had gotten Elvis Andrus to hit into an inning-ending grounder to short. But Julio Lugo hesitated before trying to make a play on the ball. He dove for it late but it got by him and rolled into left field. Marlon Byrd scored on the hit.

Penny didn’t blame Lugo for the hit.

“That had nothing to do with Julio. That was me. I left the ball up,” Penny said.

The next batter, Ian Kinsler, hit a three-run home run over the Green Monster in left field to give Texas a 4-0 lead.

“I just got ahead of myself,” Penny said. “I lost focus for a little bit.”

In the top of the sixth inning, Jarrod Saltalamacchia ripped a two-out, RBI ground-rule double to right field, scoring Hank Blalock.

Boston, meanwhile, had trouble getting meaningful hits off of Texas starter Kevin Millwood (5-4, 2.96 ERA), who did not allow an earned run by scattering seven hits in seven innings with four walks and five strikeouts.

“As he settled into the game, he really got comfortable throwing all of his pitches,” Francona said. “You could see as he got into the game, and he’s been doing it for a lot of years, he started throwing his changeup, fastball, slow curve ball, he was really comfortable with where he was locating his pitches and he pitched a pretty solid game.”

Boston put runners on second and third base in both the third, sixth and ninth innings but couldn’t get the timely hits to bring them home. In the bottom of the eighth, David Ortiz ripped a RBI single to right field, scoring Jason Bay.

The Red Sox would not get any closer. Boston left 13 runners on base.