Final, Red Sox 10-4: After all the hemming and hawing, the Red Sox have a chance to finish this trip with a winning record.
They are now 4-4 on the trip after a 13-hit effort against J.A. Happ and a slew of overmatched relievers.
Andrew Miller picks up his second straight win. He will probably face Baltimore on the upcoming homestand. It will be interesting to see how he performs against an AL East team, albeit one that is in last place.
To make matters worse for the hapless Astros, they have to face Josh Beckett on Sunday. Opposing Beckett will be Jordan Lyles, who won't be old enough to drink until October.
First pitch is 2:05 p.m., and I'll be here once again with you. Thanks for following along tonight.
Mid 9th, Red Sox 10-3: Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia were retired to start the ninth. That left the Red Sox with one out to play with, which plenty enough against Aneury Rodriguez.
Adrian Gonzalez doubled into the corner in right, and Kevin Youkilis followed with a base hit to left to plate Boston's 10th run of the night.
Dan Wheeler will get the last three outs.
Youkilis was removed from the game defensively. He's been limping again. No need to push the issue here.
End 8th, Red Sox 9-3: We're at that let's-just-get-this-over-with point of this game. Unfortunately, someone on the Houston side of things has to get three more outs.
That could take some time.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 9-3: If Brad Mills was given the choice of just bypassing these innings with his bullpen against the high-powered Red Sox and having only one run put on the board, would he take it?
I think he would. This is a miserable unit, the kind that offenses like Boston can just toy with. One run per frame would actually be manageable for Mills. Crap like what he was given in the eighth is not.
Three straight singles, a sacrifice fly and then a long three-run homer by Darnell McDonald gives the Sox a four-spot against Fernando Abad. Great to see McDonald get into one, his first since April 12. That doubles his RBI total.
Bobby Jenks is on to pitch the eighth.
End 7th, Red Sox 5-3: The Astros get one run on a bases-loaded walk to Hunter Pence, but given how he has been hitting Red Sox pitching this series, they'll take that and head to the dugout.
Daniel Bard issued the free pass before getting Carlos Lee on a chopper to third. Given the steep dropoff in the Houston lineup, that may have been their best shot. We'll see.
9:16 p.m.: The Astros have everything they could want right here. The bases are loaded for Hunter Pence, who is 5-for-6 in the series and homered his last time up.
All this came against Alfredo Aceves. Here comes Daniel Bard in what figures to be a great moment, one way or another.
This is the first time Bard has appeared in three straight games since early May.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 5-2: Wilton Lopez gets Dustin Pedroia on a grounder to third. We move to the last half of the seventh and this very effective (lately) bullpen for the Red Sox can now go to work.
First up is Alfredo Aceves.
8:58 p.m.: There are a lot of people in this organization that really like Yamaico Navarro. He has very good hands on defense and can certainly hit.
We saw the latter skill at play in the seventh. Navarro took J.A. Happ deep for his first major league home run.
Happ is lifted one out later. Dustin Pedroia will be up with nobody on and two outs in the seventh.
End 6th, Red Sox 4-2: With the issues in right field, many Red Sox fans have wondered what it would take to get Hunter Pence from Houston.
Well, it would take plenty. He is Houston's best player, without a doubt, and the Astros' farm system is not necessarily rife with prospects. Houston would want to clean out Boston's system in that event.
Anyway, Pence isn't going to shut up any of those dreamers in New England with his performance in this series. He is now 5-for-6 with a home run, a double and three RBIs in the two games after taking a hanging changeup and rocketing it to left for his 10th bomb of the year.
Miller then gave up a single to Carlos Lee and looked as if he might be nearing the end. But he induced his third double play of the game to help get through six with the lead.
Miller is at 85 pitches. In great shape to last seven for the first time in a Red Sox uniform. (Shows what I know. With the pitcher spot due up second, Terry Francona has lifted Miller. Yamaico Navarro is hitting for the lefty.)
Mid 6th, Red Sox 4-1: Darnell McDonald grounds into a double play, the fourth of the game, to end the top of the sixth.
Between J.A. Happ and Andrew Miller, 22 balls have been hit on the ground against just eight in the air. Still not one chance through the air for Adrian Gonzalez.
It will stay that way, as Gonzalez moves to first. Josh Reddick is in left. McDonald moves to right.
Happ finishes the sixth at 105 pitches. How crazy is it to think that he could go seven. If you saw the first five batters of the game, you might've thought he wouldn't last two.
End 5th, Red Sox 4-1: Andrew Miller took a line drive off his back in the bottom of the fifth and came up smiling, a pretty good sign.
It was also a great sign that the carom kicked to Dustin Pedroia for an out. Michael Bourn followed with a hit, but Miller got Angel Sanchez to survive without any damage.
Mid 5th, Red Sox 4-1: Terry Francona said a few days ago that Dustin Pedroia would be at .300 by the All-Star break.
It seemed a bit far-fetched with Pedroia needing 30 points or so. But three hits in as many at-bats tonight has him up to .279.
More importantly, the third hit is an RBI double in the fifth that scores Jacoby Ellsbury, who also doubled off J.A. Happ.
End 4th, Red Sox 3-1: Not to poop on a guy who's doing something I couldn't dream of, but you get the sense that if Andrew Miller was facing a more loaded lineup, he would be in dire straits.
Miller has walked two, but has been behind several other hitters. Some of the strikes he has thrown have been very meaty, too.
A pair of double plays have helped Miller's cause, including the one that finished the fourth.
Mid 4th, Red Sox 3-1: I stood to scratch my back and J.A. Happ had two outs. I sat to scratch my right calf and he got the third.
Suddenly, things are looking up for Happ. He is at a rather high 75 pitches through four, but gets to face Andrew Miller to open the fifth. If he can give Houston six or so after that miserable beginning, it would be quite a development for the 'Stros.
It is bug season, you know, and they're nasty this year after all that rain and stuff.
End 3rd, Red Sox 3-1: Since giving up hits to the first three men he faced, Andrew Miller has gotten nine outs in a span of 10 batters.
Hunter Pence won a nine-pitch battle with Miller for a two-out single in the third. Carlos Lee then worked a 2-0 count, but Miller threw in a low fastball that Lee popped to second.
Oh yeah, the Pence hit was somewhat down the line in right. Adrian Gonzalez got over to cut it off and fired into second. It wasn't a particularly difficult play, but certainly the most action he has received out there. No pulled muscles yet.
Mid 3rd, Red Sox 3-1: Now I know that when the sun sets, it rests just outside left field at Minute Maid Park.
It's like playing a game on the surface of the sun.
Amazingly, J.A. Happ has cooled things down a bit. He allowed a leadoff single to Dustin Pedroia, but got the next three in order and will get a chance to face the soft underbelly of the Boston lineup in the fourth.
End 2nd, Red Sox 3-1: Adrian Gonzalez has played 11 innings in right field, and his only chance came when he fielded an 86-hop single through the right side in Philadelphia the other night.
It's almost hard to remember he is out there when nobody hits the ball that way.
Remember in Little League when the worst player would always be stuck out in right? We had this kid in my league who used to just use his cleats to dig a hole throughout the game. By the sixth inning, you could only see him from the knees up as he was a good foot into the ground.
By the end of the year, there were a dozen or so ditches all over right field. If anyone ever hit anything out there, it would be a sure torn ACL. Nobody ever did, and so everybody just let the kid keep digging.
Anyway, Andrew Miller works around a one-out walk to J.R. Towles to retire the side in the second.
Mid 2nd, Red Sox 3-1: J.A. Happ threw 33 pitches in the first, just 13 in the second.
He gets Marco Scutaro and Jacoby Ellsbury on grounders to the right side. In between, Andrew Miller was a strikeout victim.
End 1st, Red Sox 3-1: Give credit to the Astros PR team for tonight's theme: Struggling left-handers get double plays to escape jams.
The first 10,000 fans 12 and under get two jars of jam.
Andrew Miller serves 'em up early and often, throwing some fat fastballs. Michael Bourn tripled to lead off the inning and Angel Sanchez singled him in.
Hunter Pence followed with a rocket up the middle for a hit of his own. Carlos Lee then smoked one to left, but Darnell McDonald tracked it down shy of the track for the first out.
Miller got Jason Michaels to hit into an inning-ending double play.
Miller threw Michaels four changeups and a slider. His fastball was very weak early on. He will have to establish that at some point, otherwise this will be a quick night for him.
Mid 1st, Red Sox 3-0: It took J.A. Happ 28 pitches to record his first out. That's not a good thing.
At the very least, he recorded two outs on it, as Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit into a double play with the bases loaded. However, the third of three runs came in on the play.
Here's how the inning went.
Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a walk. Dustin Pedroia followed with an infield hit, and the throw got away from first baseman Carlos Lee for an error that allowed Ellsbury to scamper to third.
Adrian Gonzalez followed with an RBI single and Kevin Youkilis had a base hit to load the bases. Happ then walked David Ortiz to push in the second run before Saltalamacchia's grounder to third allowed Gonzalez to come home.
Astros third baseman Chris Johnson should have come home on the Salty grounder. Gonzalez was about 10 feet off third and possesses no speed. That could've helped Happ's cause.
7:05 p.m.: Jacoby Ellsbury returns to the lineup and promptly takes strike one. Settle in for game No. 2 of the series.
6:45 p.m.: It's over in New York. The Yankees have won again, improving to 49-23 against everyone but the Red Sox.
New York is pitching. It is playing pretty good D. They lead the majors in runs scored. A lot going well for Joe Girardi's bunch right now — they are an even three games up on the Sox at the current time.
5:59 p.m.: So, what's made Andrew Miller successful so far?
It's a small sample size — just two starts — but Miller has, simply put, been throwing strikes. Within that, however, lies the fact that he isn't throwing many meaty strikes. He's hitting good spots with his three pitches — fastball, slider, changeup.
It is that changeup that has received plenty of attention, and it was a great offering in his debut vs. San Diego. But it was the good old-fashioned fastball that seemed to work for Miller his last time out at Pittsburgh, in large part because the change has been effective — he can play them off one another. Miller threw the fastball 73 times, compared to just 10 changeups, and very few were hit with any authority.
Although it's early, Miller is throwing first-pitch strikes at a career high pace (69.8 percent). He is getting opponents to swing at 51.8 percent of his pitches, far and away the highest mark of his career, but the contact rate is just about in line with his career norms, suggesting an uptick in swings and misses.
In his younger days, Miller threw his heater as much as 80 percent of the time. He has that down to 64.1 percent through the first two starts, with the slider and changeup getting worked in the rest of the time. What's notable is his velocity on the fastball is up. It's doubtful he will throw it as much as he used to, but with more speed and improved off-speed stuff to complement it, the fastball will become more of a weapon. In past years, it sometimes got hit hard.
5:13 p.m.: Caught a bit of the Yankees-Mets affair, and it had not occured to me until I saw the stat, but Jose Reyes has surpassed Adrian Gonzalez on some lists.
Most notable is batting average. Reyes had an infield hit in his first at-bat to climb to .354. Unfortunately, he was removed after that hit with some hamstring tightness.
Gonzalez broke a 1-for-15 (not 1-for-14 as everyone kept writing last night … I triple-checked) slide with that go-ahead double in the series opener in Houston. He enters this one at .349. His very slight swoon has allowed Mark Teixeira to creep up in the RBI department. Gonzalez entered today leading 72-65.
Reyes has also moved past Gonzalez in hits and multi-hit games. If he's on the shelf for any period of time, that won't be the case. Gonzalez is due to heat back up soon, anyway.
4:10 p.m.: Remember Wednesday, when the Adrian Gonzalez-David Ortiz almost completely overshadowed the fact that John Lackey was making an incredibly important start?
Then Lackey went out, pitched very well and provided all the offense for the Red Sox, quietly stealing some of the headlines himself.
It might be Andrew Miller's turn to be overshadowed, or to pull a Lackey and force his way into the spotlight.
This is the lineup Miller will face in just a few short hours:
Michael Bourn, CF
Angel Sanchez, 2B
Hunter Pence, RF
Carlos Lee, 1B
Jason Michaels, LF
Chris Johnson, 3B
Clint Barmes, SS
J.R. Towles, C
J.A. Happ, P
This group is a combined 7-for-20 (.350) with three walks against Miller. Happ, a .292 hitter this year, has a single in his only meeting with Miller.
3:00 p.m.: One wonders if Terry Francona would've put Adrian Gonzalez in right field again if Jacoby Ellsbury was still sick. Francona would want his speed demon in center to eat up most of that ground in right-center field.
Well, Ellsbury is apparently good to go. Thus, Francona has pulled the trigger once again. He will put Gonzalez in right and David Ortiz at first base for Saturday's game.
Here is the complete batting order for Boston against left-hander J.A. Happ:
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Adrian Gonzalez, RF
Kevin Youkilis, 3B
David Ortiz, 1B
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
Darnell McDonald, LF
Marco Scutaro, SS
Andrew Miller, P
8 a.m.: Andrew Miller will make his third start with the Red Sox on Saturday when he faces the Houston Astros.
Miller picked up his first win with Boston his last time out after allowing one earned run in six innings at Pittsburgh. He is 0-1 with a 5.40 ERA in two career starts against Houston.
The Astros are the only team in the majors still searching for their 30th win after blowing a 5-1 lead in the series opener. Their bullpen struggled, keeping with a season-long theme.
That places a little more emphasis on the effort of J.A. Happ, who gets the ball Saturday. Happ hasn’t lasted longer than six innings since May 3. He is 0-for-3 with a 7.88 ERA in June.
The Red Sox are hoping to have center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury back in the lineup after he missed the opener due to an illness, but manager Terry Francona isn’t holding his breath.
"We’ll see how he does [Saturday]. I don't know, he didn't look too good," Francona said after Friday's win.
First pitch from Happ is expected to come at 7:05 p.m.
