Failure to access Google Geocoding API

Since switching to version 6.0.69a in preparation to moving to V7, I cannot access Google's Geocoding API. This is what happens:

GEO_test: Requesting URL: https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?address=1090%20Wien%20Tendlergasse%203&key=myGoogleKey

GEO_test: An input/output error occurred while connecting to 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/xml'. The message was Host name 'maps.googleapis.com' does not match the certificate subject provided by the peer (CN=*.googleapis.com, O=Google Inc, L=Mountain View, ST=California, C=US).
Processing scripts after scraping session has ended.
Processing scripts always to be run at the end.
Scraping session "GEOCODING" finished.

The same URL issued from a browser gets the expected answer.

Other scrapes seem to run nrmally.
It seems that Screenscraper is overly picky about Google's certificate for their API server.
What can be done?

best regards
Christian Pieler