BOSTON (AP) -- Justin Grimm is accustomed to pitching with a lead.
The Texas Rangers' rookie right-hander was hit so hard by the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night, his teammates had little chance to try and give him one.
Grimm couldn't make it through the second inning in his first start against Boston, getting tagged for a career-high eight runs in a 17-5 loss that snapped the Rangers' five-game winning streak against the Red Sox.
"I didn't give our team a chance from the get-go," Grimm said. "It's tough to play a ballgame, as you can tell, when everybody's just lackadaisical when you fall behind quick like that. Just seems to steamroll when stuff like that happens.
"I accept full responsibility for this loss."
Grimm (5-4) came in leading the majors with an average of 8.03 runs of support per nine innings, a comfortable cushion provided by a potent lineup that's backed him with seven or more runs four times already this season, including his last three starts -- all wins.
It went sour swiftly against Boston, though.
"From the get-go, I had no fastball command at all. I was working behind hitters and leaving it up when it came across the plate," Grimm explained. "A tough lineup like that, you can't work from behind. This is my loss. It's not this team's loss."
After allowing two runs in the first inning, the 24-year-old yielded six more in the second, including a two-run homer to Jackie Bradley Jr. and a two-run triple by David Ortiz.
Five of the seven hits Grimm gave up went for extra bases, including a combined cycle by the Red Sox during their six-run second. He surrendered three walks with one strikeout in 1 2-3 innings, allowing his ERA to rise from 3.93 to 5.14.
"I think the Red Sox hitters affected him," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "You can't leave all those pitches out in the middle of the plate, up in the zone, and that's what they do with it.
"They came out today, they jumped on us early and they didn't stop."
They did, eventually, but not until left fielder David Murphy pitched a scoreless eighth in his first appearance on the mound since high school.
"Just throw the ball over the plate, don't go out there messing around, get us off the field," Washington said of his instructions to Murphy. "And he did."
Bradley Jr. hit his first career homer and finished with three RBIs as Boston set season highs for hits and runs. Stephen Drew, Mike Carp and Jarrod Saltalamacchia also homered for the Red Sox, who scored at least one run in every inning through the first seven and finished with 19 hits, eight of them doubles.
It was an abundance of run support for Ryan Dempster (3-6), who ended a streak of five winless starts with his first victory in a month.
David Ortiz had three RBIs, driving in one run with a double in the first before legging out a rare triple in the second. Carp also drove in three runs.
Jeff Baker hit a two-run homer for Texas in the fourth and Nelson Cruz hit a solo shot out to straightaway center in the fifth -- Dempster's only mistakes against his former team. He allowed three runs on five hits over seven innings, striking out six with one walk.
The Red Sox had just set a season high with 18 hits Saturday in an 11-1 win at New York and topped that when Daniel Nava doubled in the eighth off Murphy.
Jose Iglesias led off the second with a double and scored on Bradley's homer to right. By the time Iglesias struck out in his second at-bat of the inning, Boston led 8-0.
Carp added a solo homer in the fifth, just out of Cruz's reach as he tumbled over the right-field wall into the bullpen trying to make the catch. Cruz hit one over a much higher wall with his homer to center in the top of the sixth.
"I told them when they came in, when they take their shower, let it go down the drain and we bounce back tomorrow," Washington said.
NOTES: Dempster had not won since improving to 2-2 on May 2 in a 3-1 win over Toronto. ... Carp was ejected after being called out on strikes in the eighth. ... Red Sox CF Jacoby Ellsbury missed his fourth straight game with tightness in his groin. Ellsbury did some running and took batting practice prior to the game, and Boston manager John Farrell said he could return to the lineup Wednesday. ... Farrell also said CF Shane Victorino, on the DL with a strained left hamstring, could begin a rehab assignment before the end of the week. ... Texas planned to activate RHP Alexi Ogando (right biceps tendinitis) from the DL on Wednesday and start him for the first time since May 15.
