Rick Porcello pitched and I guess he didn't completely screw it up. (Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports Images)

I have so much going on right now that I feel like I’m going to explode, so this is going to be short and (thanks to the Sox) sweet.

First, on Rick Porcello. Put me down as unimpressed. Yes, it’s great and lovely that things do seem to turn out better when you don’t give up any home runs, especially when you’re almost always working with runners on base. But I’m not going to pretend that there was a massive improvement just because runners didn’t cross home plate. Porcello’s WHIP actually worsened in this one. He gave up 8 hits and a walk over 6 innings and frankly, he was lucky to give up only 2 runs. Of course, he’s been unlucky for certain stretches this season, but you should expect to be unlucky when you give up the amount of solid contact he does. His ground ball to fly ball ratio was an improvement over recent output, with 14 ground balls and 7 fly balls, but no matter how good you think you are at inducing double plays, putting runners on base will come back to bite you.

In the event of this game, though, okay. Two runs over six innings, hey, that’s a quality start, and I can’t seriously fault him. So let’s look at some bright spots.

Porcello put runners on first and second in both the 2nd and 3rd innings, but got out of both situations with ground outs, including this double play. In the bottom of the 3rd, the Sox took the lead with the help of Marlins pitcher Tom Koehler, who committed one of those pitcher errors that lets his ERA stay low. With runners on second and third, All-Star Brock Holt pulled a ground ball to the right side of the infield to score Ryan Hanigan. With two outs and a runner in scoring position, as he often does, Xander Bogaerts came through, tapping a ball out to the edge of the infield grass, giving shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria an impossible play and scoring Mookie Betts from third. Papi was up next and, well, he homered into the Green Monster like he sometimes does, and the Sox were up 4-0.

Porcello had a typical poor inning in the top of the 4th, giving up five consecutive singles and two runs along the way. The guy puts himself in position to fail. If he’d given up a home run or even a double with the bases loaded instead of two consecutive ground outs, I would be singing a different tune today, as would a few others.

Anyway, things mostly stayed to form for the rest of the game. Ortiz led off the 6th with a ground rule double into the triangle, and might have scored on Hanley Ramirez’s ensuing single if the situation called for more aggressive baserunning. In course of fact, he ended up scoring on Pablo Sandoval’s double play ball to Hechavarria, making the score 5-2, Red Sox.

Probably the best part of the game was Alejandro De Aza reaching on an error (again by the pitcher, but this time it was reliever Sam Dyson), advancing to second on a hit-and-run fielder’s choice, stealing third, and then scoring on the horrible throw down by catcher J.T. Realmuto to make it 6-2, Red Sox. The Marlins got one back in the 8th on a Michael Morse solo shot off Matt Barnes to center, but in my mind (this is clearly the thought process of a stupid fan) that just meant a save opportunity for Koji. He came through with three straight outs, including a swinging strikeout of Dee Gordon (still hitting .333!) on a high fastball to end it.