Red Sox nip it in the bud

Hot News Today is about Red Sox nip it in the bud: As Bud Norris stacked one shutout inning upon another after a flawed start in the first, ringing up 10 strikeouts in the process, it appeared Marco Scutaro’s leadoff home run was all the offense the Red Sox would muster against the Astros’ righthander.

Until, that is, the offense came to life in the seventh inning.

The Sox opened the floodgates with an eye-popping, six-run, six-hit outburst in the seventh - sparked by Dustin Pedroia’s tying two-run single and Adrian Gonzalez’s towering two-run double for the go-ahead runs - in last night’s 7-5 victory over the Astros before 36,279 at Minute Maid Park.
“We only had one run on one hit,’’ said Scutaro, who was penciled in as the leadoff hitter when an ill Jacoby Ellsbury was a late scratch. “We had a couple of guys get on and we got a couple of big hits. Pedey came up with a big hit, then Gonzo.


“It was great, especially with the way we’ve been hitting the ball lately,’’ Scutaro said. “We’ve been having trouble scoring runs lately, so it was huge.’’

The Sox have not had any issues scoring in the seventh inning, outscoring their opponents, 74-30.

“We can put up a crooked number with the best of them,’’ said Dan Wheeler, who picked up the win (1-1) in relief of starter Tim Wakefield, who was thwarted from recording his 198th career victory after allowing five runs on a season-high 11 hits in 5 ⅓ innings.

The victory enabled the Sox to post their 47th win of the season at the halfway point and even their interleague record to 8-8.

Batting in the leadoff position for the first time this season, Scutaro gave the Sox a jolt with his homer off Norris on a 2-and-2 pitch.

“I just got a good pitch to hit and I hit it good,’’ Scutaro said of his third homer of the season and fifth career leadoff homer. “After that, the guy was throwing the ball very good.’’

So good, in fact, Norris looked like the second coming of Nolan Ryan when he settled down.

After getting Pedroia to fly to deep right, he finished the first with strikeouts of Gonzalez and Kevin Youkilis.

The Astros answered in the bottom half. Michael Bourn led off with a single to center off Wakefield. Bourn advanced to second on his major league-leading 35th stolen base, then took third on Angel Sanchez’s ground out to short. Hunter Pence tied it with a towering fly to center.

source:http://articles.boston.com/2011-07-02/sports/29731130_1_jacoby-ellsbury-tim-wakefield-red-sox