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.