The Red Sox are not off to a good start against the league-worst Astros, trailing 3-1 after the first three innings.
The first at bat of the game certainly didn’t portend any such difficulties. With Jacoby Ellsbury a late scratch due to illness, Marco Scutaro took over the leadoff duties. He responded quite positively, turning on a 2-2 fastball up-and-in and sending it into the stands in left for a home run.
Since then, though, Norris has been quite a bit more stingy, allowing only a walk in both the second and third innings while striking out five men along the way.
Tim Wakefield has not been quite so unhittable, unfortunately. Michael Bourn led off the bottom of the first with a single, stole second, and moved to third on a ground ball before scoring on a sacrifice fly from Hunter Pence. The Astros would strike again in the second with two outs, picking up three straight hits to score two more runs.
The only good news is that the Sox have Norris’ pitch count reasonably high early. If they can knock him out after six innings, they might be in decent shape.