Hanley loses his helmet again ((AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Lefty and Righty headed out to the ol’ ballpark again for the game tonight. It was a brisk but comfortable 51 degrees at game time and – okay, I’m just reading from my scorecard. We grabbed some cheap right field grandstand seats with some friends for a birthday and then sat 10 rows closer, in the fancy red seats with cupholders. It was the height of luxury.

Rick Porcello started off the game with a walk, but then struck out the side before running into an odd little rough patch in the 2nd inning, giving up a run (the only Jays’ run of the night). When I say this was an odd rough patch, I mean it: Kevin Pillar doubled, Michael Saunders reached on an error (on Porcello himself, failing to touch his foot to first base on a flip from Mike Napoli), and Dalton Pompey was hit by the very next pitch. With the bases loaded and no one out, Porcello gave up what might’ve been a single to Josh Thole over Xander Bogaerts’ head. Instead, Saunders misread the play (thinking that Bogaerts had caught the ball), hanging back at second as the ball hit the grass in center field, and Mookie Betts was able to throw him out fairly easily on a force play at third. Pillar came in from third, but with men on 1st and 2nd and one out, Porcello got Ryan Goins to ground into a double play, Dustin Pedroia to Napoli, to end the inning.

From the 3rd inning to the 6th, Porcello was dominant. That’s coming from someone who hasn’t been Rick’s biggest fan so far. Of course, it helps when you don’t give up a home run for the very first time this year. But even if he had, 13 up and 13 down is very impressive (I’m counting the double play to end the 2nd). He did have a little help in the 3rd inning from Mookie. This happened to happen while I was getting food underneath, watching it on one of the TVs hung up between concessions menus while the crowd gasped and screamed and shouted, “Mooooookie.”

But overall, Porcello looked great. The 7th inning got a liiiiiittle hairy, with a single by Edwin Encarnacion and a walk by Saunders, but the inning ended with two runners stranded and no runs having crossed the plate.

Meanwhile, the Sox had only two real offensive stretches of success themselves, in the 3rd and 7th innings. R.A. Dickey actually had a pretty good day. With Ryan Hanigan and Pedroia both on base with singles and one out, David Ortiz hit a looper to right field that scored Hanigan easily, but Pedroia was tagged out at third after Saunders’ throw home was cut off. With Ortiz on first and the game tied 1-1 with two outs, even on a night when he struck out three times, Hanley Ramirez did it again. Without his helmet. Again. An absolute cannon shot. Again.

In the bottom of the 7th, after back-to-back singles by Brock Holt and Bogaerts, Hanigan laid down a serviceable sacrifice bunt to set up Betts with men on 2nd and 3rd and one out. He came through, delivering a single to right field. The available video for this moment is SEVEN MINUTES LONG and it definitely felt longer than that in the ballpark. It could’ve been 25 minutes for all I knew. There must have been some kind of debacle with the replay system, because it was by far the longest duration of replay (in any sport) that I can remember. And on a very easy call to make – Bogaerts was out by a mile trying to score from 2nd, and didn’t even touch home.

But Holt had already come around from 3rd to get the Sox an insurance run to put them up 4-1.

The rest of the game was mercifully quick and dirty after the horrific replay delay. We finally had one of those games that goes just the way you draw it up – starter, setup man, closer – without any messy long relief. Junichi Tazawa gave up a leadoff single to Goins before putting down the top of the Blue Jays’ order, including a strikeout of Bautista on a well-placed outside fastball to end the inning. And Koji looked great for the second consecutive outing, striking out the side (including back-to-back strikeouts on fastballs – not splitters! – to start the inning) for the save.

Sox win the series! And now everyone – including us – gets a welcome day off.

I have not figured out this whole DVR thing yet. Righty and I ended up missing the last at-bat of this game because I only extended the game’s recording by a half hour instead of…thirty-two minutes? You know, back in my day, the VCR would’ve run until the tape ran out! I feel crotchety.

Anyway, the main reason for my recording confusion was a rain delay that moved the start time of this one from 6:10 to 6:40. By about 6:44, the Blue Jays had scored their first run of the night, after a single by Jose Reyes, a stolen base, and a single by Devon Travis. Joe Kelly responded by throwing three straight fastballs off the mark to Josh Donaldson, putting him behind in the count 3-0. Though Kelly would battle back to get two strikes, Donaldson ended up walking and, eventually, getting knocked in along with Travis on a two-out double by Russell Martin.

In the Red Sox’ half of the first, Mookie Betts also got on to lead off, but tried to match Reyes by stealing second, and instead got caught by an absolutely perfect throw by Martin. Dustin Pedroia walked on the very next pitch, and got moved over to third by a David Ortiz double. Pablo Sandoval knocked in both baserunners when he had the green light on a 3-0 count, taking a high fastball on the outer part of the plate to the opposite field, where it bounced off the Sox’ loss total (still 9) and into the left fielder’s glove.

In the second and third, Kelly did this: Strikeout, strikeout, strikeout, home run (on an 0-2 count), strikeout, strikeout, strikeout. So that’s…you know. Something. He also gave up consecutive walks and a single to start the 4th, letting the leadoff man (Martin) score to go down 5-2.

In the bottom of the inning, though, Sandoval shortened the lead by a run, hitting his second homer in as many games, this one into the visitor’s bullpen (does the cop in the home bullpen put his arms in the air like that for every home run now? Or did he always do that? Or is it just a coincidence this one time? I know you come here for the big questions).

In the bottom of the fifth, after a quick, two-strikeout inning from Kelly, Betts hit a double off the Monster with two outs. Pedroia then followed this up with a Baltimore Chop off of home plate. Upon catching the ball, Aaron Sanchez was struck with delusions of grandeur and attempted to throw out Pedroia at first even though he was basically on top of the bag at the time of the throw. Sanchez put so much extra gas on the throw that he sailed it over Edwin Encarnacion’s head, sending Mookie Betts home to narrow the lead to one run, 5-4.

Alexi Ogando came in to relieve Kelly and pitched excellently in the seventh and eighth innings, including a CRUCIAL strikeout of Jose Reyes with one out and Kevin Pillar (no relation) on third base after a leadoff double.

Betts, continuing an excellent night, led off the eighth inning with a single, moved to second on a Pedroia single, went to third on a Roberto Osuna wild pitch, and tied the game on a Hanley Ramirez “sacrifice fly” that was a bases-clearing double in an alternate universe. Watch Hanley pimp this thing. Make that an alternate universe bases-clearing single.

With the game tied, Koji Uehara came in and shut the door in the ninth, striking out two and getting the third man to pop out to Holt at third (Pablo left the game with neck soreness in the 6th inning after making this great diving play).

In the 9th, Holt struck out to lead off (he goes 0-4 right after I pick him up in fantasy baseball, obviously). But Xander Bogaerts singled, and so did Hanigan, setting the stage for Mookie Betts with one out and a runner in scoring position. Okay, it actually ended up being two runners in scoring position by the time the ball was put in play because of a wild pitch. But guess what? I didn’t get to watch this at-bat because I’m technologically stunted. Let’s watch it together, shall we?

Glorious.