Pedroia powers Red Sox past Orioles
(The Sports Xchange) - Dustin Pedroia homered twice and drove in five runs while Henry Owens threw 7-2/3 shutout innings as the Boston Red Sox scored nine early runs and rolled to a 10-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday. Second baseman Pedroia is making his way back after sitting out 42 games due to a strained right hamstring and has started six of Boston's last eight games with hits in all of them. He finished 2-for-4 with a walk on Wednesday. "I feel healthy so it's just a matter of getting back in the rhythm of the game and stuff like that," Pedroia said. "Sometimes you get hurt and miss some time. The biggest thing is for me is to make sure I'm out there feeling good and being able to help us win." Pedroia hit a two-run homer in the third and added a three-run shot in the fourth as the Red Sox scored five to go up 9-0. David Ortiz hit his 501st career homer with a solo shot in the second, while Brock Holt contributed two RBI singles, and shortstop Deven Marrero finished 3-for-4 with an RBI single. All of the offense gave Owens (3-2) a nice cushion to work with and the left-hander responded as he mixed his pitches throughout the game, often using a good change-up to throw off the timing of the Baltimore batters. Owens threw a career-high 113 pitches and rarely found trouble with left fielder Steve Pearce giving the Orioles their lone run with an RBI groundout in the ninth. "Great outing when we needed it," Red Sox interim manager Torey Lovullo said. "We had our backs up against the wall because of the long outing from the bullpen yesterday, and he gave us everything and then some." Owens scattered six hits and struck out four without a walk and knew the Orioles like to swing for the fences and tried to use that to his advantage. "I knew the majority of their lineup was pretty aggressive and kind of took that book into today and rolled with it," Owens said. "Every lineup's different, obviously. But I think the majority of those guys are trying to hunt and drive the ball out of the ballpark." (Compiled by Greg Stutchbury)
