After putting up five runs on J.A. Happ, the Red Sox once again took advantage of a weak Houston bullpen to put the Astros away, picking up their third straight win, 10-4.
The scoring off Happ began right away, with the first five Red Sox batters all reaching base to start the game, bringing two runs in in the process. The Sox would only manage to get one more, though, despite having the bases loaded with no outs in the inning. Jarrod Saltalamacchia grounded into a double play as a run came in the backdoor, and Darnell McDonald hit a fly ball for out number three.
Andrew Miller ran into some trouble of his own in the bottom half, giving up a leadoff triple to Michael Bourn and then back-to-back singles to score the run. He would escape trouble quickly, however. Carlos Lee's loud line drive found Darnell McDonald's glove, as did the ground ball off the bat of Jason Michaels, resulting in an inning-ending double play.
From there, both pitchers settled down for the next three innings, with Andrew Miller inducing ground ball after ground ball to erase most of the baserunners he allowed.
It was the Sox who started the scoring again in the fifth, with back-to-back doubles from Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia making it 4-1, but Miller gave the run right back in the sixth on a loud home run from Hunter Pence. The teams exchanged runs in the seventh as Yamaico Navarro picked up his first career homer on a pinch hitting appearance and a combination of Alfredo Aceves and Daniel Bard allowed the Astros to pull back within two after some questionable calls by home plate umpire Cory Blaser.
It was in the eighth, though, that the Sox really opened things up, with Adrian Gonzalez, Kevin Youkilis, and Josh Reddick each singling before Darnell McDonald finally got off the schneid with a three-run homer to make it 9-3. The Sox added another run in the ninth to make it double digits, and seem to finally be back on track.