The Red Sox topped the Mariners early this morning by a score of 2-1, giving them two wins in two days by scoring a total of four runs. They’ve won four out of five, and now sit at 17-18 on the season.

Joe Kelly was pretty good in this one. His line was similar to Wade Miley‘s yesterday, but Kelly’s outing felt more like a quality start. Which line is better?

Boston	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Miley (W, 2-4)	6.2	5	0	0	4	1	0	5.60
Kelly, J	6.1	5	1	1	3	2	0	5.58

On the surface, you’d probably have to take Miley with 0 runs in the win. But Miley put runners on in every inning, and was constantly working out of trouble. Kelly, on the other hand, retired seven in a row at one point and had three separate 1-2-3 innings. Obviously the most important thing in pitching is preventing the other team from scoring, but I was more impressed with Kelly’s start.

In the bottom of the 7th the score was knotted at 1, and Kelly got the first man to foul out, but then walked Chris Taylor on a 3-2 pitch that was very close. Farrell didn’t want to take any chances and gave Pumpsie the hook after only 91 pitches. He was not happy when he was pulled. I couldn’t tell if he was upset with Farrell for yanking him, or the ump for calling the last pitch a ball, but he was madder than an old wet hen.

Another low run total for this team is slightly worrisome, so let’s hope it doesn’t become a trend. I’d be more worried if the squad was putting together a lot of weak at-bats, but they’ve been hitting a lot of balls hard, just right at people. What I’m about to say is downright blasphemous to number worshippers, but hitters have been passing “the eye test”, and I feel like they’re on the verge of breaking out. If you’d like to challenge this feeling, look up the team’s BABIP over the last five games and tell me I’m wrong (I haven’t done this, I’m genuinely curious to hear the answer).

Speaking of the eye test, Xander looked great in the field again last night. Smooth, confident, rangy. Full disclosure: I’m not really that comfortable with the advanced defensive statistics, so I can’t argue that his improved Rdrs/yr is a better indicator of his season thus far than his diminished Rtot/yr, but let’s just pretend that that proves my point.

The offense was highlighted by some great individual performances. Hanley had 4 hits, including his FIRST double of the year! I have no idea how that’s possible for a guy who was slugging .532 entering last night’s game and has been one of the best power hitters in the game this year.

Unfortunately HanRam also got thrown out twice on the basepaths, costing the Red Sox at least one run. That’s just Hanley being Manny, I guess.

Victorino had himself a night, going yabo and making a great running catch over his head in right, then doubling off the runner at first who was off with the pitch.

Rusney who?

In the top of the 9th, with the score still even at 1 apiece, Brock Holt! led off with a double, Xander sacrificed him over to third, Panda (pinch hitting for Swihart) got drilled, and Mookie lifted a 1-2 pitch into medium left field, deep enough to score Holt from third. But, Rickie Weeks dropped the ball, so there wasn’t even a play at the plate.

Despite the error, the Red Sox failed to do any further damage, so they entered the bottom of the 9th with a 2-1 lead. No matter, Koji slammed the door shut with a 1-2-3 inning. Remember when Jonathan Papelbon was the closer and he’d put a million guys on and recite an epic poem to himself in between every pitch before finally striking out the last batter of the game on a 3-2 pitch to leave the bases loaded? This is much preferable.

Notes:

-Yesterday the aforementioned Papelbon became the Phillies’ all-time leader in saves. God, I feel old.

-Three more 0 for 4 performances by Red Sox batters.

–Pedroia is still awesome.