Red Sox Rally In Seventh Inning, Come Back To Beat Astros, 7-5

After dropping two of three to the Philadelphia Phillies, the Boston Red Sox continued their quest for interleague wins as they headed down to Texas to take on the worst team in the majors, the Houston Astros.  

It appeared after the first six innings of Friday night's ballgame that they wouldn't find said win, trailing 5-1.  However, thanks to a big seventh inning, the Red Sox were able to rally back to down the Astros, 7-5, taking game one of the series.

The Red Sox got a very poor outing from Tim Wakefield this evening, as he ran into trouble in the early going.  After Marco Scutaro's solo homer in the first, the Astros struck back in the bottom of the frame off a sacrifice fly from Hunter Pence, then again in the second off an Angel Sanchez bunt RBI single and a Pence ground rule double.    

Wakefield's woes would continue when he allowed an RBI double to Carlos Lee in the fifth to extend the Astros' lead to 4-1.  His night would officially end after he gave up an RBI single to the opposing pitcher, making the lead 5-1.  Wake's final line wasn't pretty.  In the five and a third innings he pitched, Wakefield was charged with five earned runs while surrendering eleven hits and was unable to record a strikeout.  Luckily, his offense got him off the hook.

Astros starter Bud Norris held the Red Sox to just one earned run through six innings, however his fortunes would change in the seventh.  Norris started the inning by allowing the first two men of the inning to reach safely.  Josh Reddick then stepped up and connected on an RBI double that plated J.D. Drew from second base to whittle down the lead to just three runs.

Norris was pulled after allowing the run, and was replaced by Sergio Escolana.  Escolana only faced two batters this evening. The first was Drew Sutton, who drove in Jarrod Saltalamacchia from third base on an RBI single, dropping the lead to 5-3, Houston. The second was Darnell McDonald, who headed down to first after taking a wild curveball off the foot. In came Wilton Lopez, and after a Marco Scutaro strikeout, Dustin Pedroia tied the game on an RBI single that brought in two runs. With Lopez still in the game, the Red Sox took the lead thanks to an Adrian Gonzalez wall-ball RBI double that scored both McDonald and Pedroia to make it a 7-5 Red Sox lead.

The Boston lead was preserved thanks to a four-way combination of Matt Albers, Franklin Morales, Daniel Bard, and Jonathan Papelbon; giving the Red Sox the 7-5 victory.

The Red Sox will look to clinch the series against the Astros tomorrow night with Andrew Miller going up against J.A. Happ.