Red Sox steer out of skid

“We did enough,’’ manager Terry Francona said following his team’s second victory since the All-Star break. “A lot of times it just comes back to pitching. If we gave up five or six runs, we’d still be talking about our hitting.’’

Or, more specifically, their lack thereof.

Instead, the Red Sox again celebrated the signing of Brad Penny, who went 6 1/3 innings before handing the ball off to a relief corps that has not allowed a run in 16 innings since the All-Star break. (More on that shortly.)

Penny allowed only an unearned run on five hits while striking out four, issuing no walks. He threw 108 pitches in his longest outing since May 20, bouncing back nicely from a rough start in Toronto last weekend, against an Orioles club that pelted him here in April.

Now 7-4 on the season, Penny has a 3.92 ERA in his last 15 outings. Overall, the Red Sox are 10-9 in his starts. Aside from a disturbing inability to hold op posing runners - the Orioles had two steals, making opponents 18 for 19 in steal attempts against him this year - Penny continues to look like the kind of No. 5 starter that most teams would love to possess.

“I think he’s - I don’t know the right word is trending - but the ball is coming out of his hand pretty crisp,’’ Francona said of his beefy righthander.

And it’s a good thing, too.

At the moment, the Red Sox are in no position to give away anything.

Nonetheless, after Penny allowed a leadoff single to Nolan Reimold in the second, the Sox got careless. With one out, during an epic 14-pitch at-bat by Melvin Mora, Reimold stole second and advanced to third on catcher Jason Varitek’s throwing error.

The steal was the Orioles’ first of the game and increased the number of stolen bases against the Sox this season to a major league-leading 95. More importantly, when Mora ended the monotony with a sacrifice fly, it left the Sox with an immediate 1-0 deficit.