Though the Red Sox are now officially out of playoff contention, the race to .500 continued last night at Yankee Stadium. Boston won its 4th straight game, and Red Sox pitchers have now given up only 1 run over the last 4 games. That single run came against Eduardo Rodriguez last night, who responded to that early trouble by settling down nicely and scattering four hits and a walk over the next five innings.

The Sox offensive effort started promisingly in the first inning, as Mookie Betts hit a ground rule double and advanced to third with one out. But he was thrown out on a ground ball to third that forced him home, and Yankees starter Ivan Nova got out of the jam.

The Yankees did Boston one better in the bottom half of the first. Jacoby Ellsbury hit a ground rule double to start things off just like his centerfielder/leadoff hitter counterpart, and he too got to third, on a sacrifice by Brett Gardner. The difference came when Alex Rodriguez hit a sacrifice fly to get Ellsbury home, and New York went up 1-0.

Eduardo Rodriguez got into another jam in the bottom of the 2nd. A walk and Dustin Pedroia’s 6th error of the year loaded the bases with 2 outs, but Eduardo managed to get out of the inning with a clutch full count strikeout of A-Rod with a fastball up and in.

Ivan Nova had kind of a bizarre inning in the top of the 3rd. He struck out Devin Marrero on three pitches. He walked Jackie Bradley, Jr. on five pitches (four balls after Bradley looked at a strike to start things off). He struck Betts out on three pitches. He walked Pedroia on four pitches. And finally, he struck Xander Bogaerts out on three pitches. That opening strike to Bradley was the only pitch out of place.

Eduardo Rodriguez gave up a single in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th innings, but stranded each of the runners. And after five innings of frustrated futility, the Boston offense finally came to Rodriguez’s aid. With two outs, Bogaerts doubled under Chase Headley’s glove down the left field line, and Travis Shaw took Ivan Nova deep to right on the very next pitch to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.

The first batter Eduardo faced with his newfound lead was Yankees catcher John Ryan Murphy, who hit a line drive shot over Jackie Bradley’s head…except for the fact that Bradley caught it. Murphy actually stood at second taking off his shin guard because he thought he had a double.

The catch helped Rodriguez to record his first 1-2-3 inning of the game in what was probably his last appearance of 2015. He was making an appeal for one more inning as he came into the dugout, but he fell down the stairs. I’m not kidding.

Wade Miley was particularly amused by the whole thing. I love that guy.

Bradley gave Rodriguez a little more cushion in the top of the 7th, homering on a line drive to left field and driving in Blake Swihart, who’d singled, in the process. 4-1, Red Sox.

With two outs in the top of the 9th, Devin Marrero hit his first major league home run to give Boston another insurance run. It was an opposite field job, and Robbie Ross, Jr. definitely appreciated the extra cushion. It’s pretty cool that the ball got tossed back so that Marrero could have it.

Not that he actually needed the extra runs, but Ross did have to deal with runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. It’s nearly always an adventure with Robbie, but he got out of the jam without any damage. 5-1, final.

Not only are the Sox inching towards .500, but the team’s run differential is nearly positive. I can’t remember the last time that was the case. Small victories.

On Saturday afternoon, Craig Breslow got his first career major league start and did everything the Red Sox could have asked of him. Having decided that the rotation needed a bullpen day, Boston got just what it needed out of Breslow and the rest of the relief pitching staff: a shutout performance from 6 different pitchers, Boston’s second straight shutout of Baltimore.

Breslow worked four shutout innings, but by the time Heath Hembree came in to relieve the lefty, the offense hadn’t put up any runs in support. Wei-Yin Chen was pitching pretty well himself for the Orioles. So well, in fact, that he’d only allowed a single hit (a Dustin Pedroia single) through 4 innings, retiring each of the other 12 batters he faced.

But with 1 out in the 5th, Chen walked Brock Holt on five pitches and then grooved an inside changeup to Josh Rutledge, who absolutely cleaned it out to left field, where it hit the Green Monster so hard that it rolled about halfway back to third base. This gave Holt just enough time to squeeze his foot in ahead of the tag at home plate to give Boston a 1-0 lead.

Holt had a great day in the field (at 3rd base) and at the plate. During the first of Matt Barnes’ two scoreless innings of work, he made this quick, powerful throw on a literal Baltimore chop from Manny Machado:

In the bottom half of the inning, he singled home Rusney Castillo, who’d doubled with two outs.

The Red Sox got two more runs in the bottom of the 7th when 2013 Gold Glover Manny Machado let a ground ball from Xander Bogaerts scoot directly under his glove, scoring Blake Swihart from third and Mookie Betts from second.

Holt kept doing Brock Holt things in the top of the 8th. With Alexi Ogando pitching, the Brock Star charged down the line and made a slick play to get Nolan Reimold at first.

After Ogando let two runners reach, Tommy Layne came in to get Chris Davis to pop out and Noe Ramirez came in to face Steve Pearce, who flew out to center field.

Holt scored again during an error-laden 4-run 9th inning for the Red Sox. He reached on an error and came home from third on a goofy ground-rule double down the right field line by Betts.

This inning also contained an odd case of deja vu: the Sox’ final two runs came on another ground ball from Xander Bogaerts to Manny Machado, who again biffed a play he should’ve made, again scoring runners from second and third. Pretty bizarre. And poor Xander gets no RBIs for his hard ground ball contact. I’m sure he’ll be able to sleep at night, don’t worry.

Finally, Holt made a dangerous play in the 9th on a popup that fell perilously close to the Baltimore dugout, where Buck Showalter made a token gesture to save the Red Sox third baseman from falling down the steps. Yeah right, Buck.

Bogaerts also made a great play behind Jonathan Aro in the 9th, diving for the last out of the game.