Henry Owens left the mound with the lead for the second time in two major league starts, and this time the bullpen didn’t blow it. And Jackie Bradley, Jr., of all people, made sure that the lead was a little more comfortable for the relievers who’d have to protect it in the final innings. Before we get into it, though, the Sox made one pretty notable transaction after the game ended.

Justin Masterson was designated for assignment.

He was actually moderately effective in this matchup. He was the first reliever in the game for Owens, who’d started the sixth inning by giving up a ground rule double to Ian Kinsler. But he gave up a leadoff solo home run to first baseman Jefry Marte in the 7th, and that was it for his Red Sox career. Marte, whose career has spanned all of 16 major league games so far, pimped the hell out of it. One of the cockiest bat flips of the year. Anyway, like Masterson said himself later, he was on a one-year deal in Boston and he wasn’t part of any future plans, especially considering his 2015 performance.

The Sox struck first, in the bottom of the 2nd. With two outs and Alejandro De Aza on first, Blake Swihart reached on an error by Kinsler and Josh Rutledge beat out an infield single to load the bases. Bradley drew a five-pitch walk for his first RBI of the afternoon, and Brock Holt managed another infield single, bringing Swihart home to give Owens a 2-0 advantage.

After another quiet inning for Owens, he got into trouble very quickly in the 3rd. He walked Rajai Davis to start things off (control is probably Owens’ biggest issue), and Davis stole second on a 2-0 pitch that sailed high and outside to the backstop, allowing him to take third base as well. The 6-6 Owens nearly managed to strand Davis at third, but he eventually gave up a two-out RBI single to Victor Martinez to make the score 2-1, Boston.

The 4th and 5th innings were pretty quiet for both teams except for, oh yeah, Jackie Bradley channeling Willie Mays on an over-the-shoulder catch to deep center on a fly ball by Marte.

Between Masterson’s effective relief inning for Owens in the 6th and the solo shot he gave up to Marte in the 7th, Bradley took a high inside fastball from lefty Tom Gorzelanny to right center for a solo home run of his own to make it 3-1.

With the score 3-2 after Marte’s bomb and a clean 3 outs from Robbie Ross, Jr. in relief of Masterson, the Boston offense got to work immediately. David Ortiz and Travis Shaw put together back-to-back singles to start the inning (Ortiz’s was a ground ball to the third base side that no one had a chance at because of the shift). De Aza bunted to advance the runners and was just barely out at first. But after Ian Krol struck out Blake Swihart, the Sox had runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs and the lackluster combo of Rutledge and Bradley coming up next in the order.

Somewhat curiously, the Tigers elected to intentionally walk Rutledge (slashing .143/.250/.143 in 6 games with the Red Sox) in order to bring up Bradley for the lefty-lefty matchup. Bradley worked the count full before lining a triple to right field to drive in his third, fourth, and fifth runs of the game. Brock Holt singled to bring Bradley home for good measure, and that wrapped up the scoring for the game. 7-2, Boston.

Both Junichi Tazawa, in the 8th inning, and Jean Machi, in the 9th, were effective. Tazawa had a clean inning, which hasn’t been the norm for him recently. Marte was robbed again in the 9th on a deep fly ball when Rusney Castillo made a terrific running catch.

So hey, the Red Sox won the series! Unfortunately, they’re going to need to do a lot more than that to get back within spitting distance of 2015 significance. They’re going to have to get the brooms out for at least three or four series (probably more like six or seven), and soon.

Notes:

1. Hanley Ramirez had the day off after hitting a foul ball off his foot the other day, and he spent it by measuring Henry Owens’ foot size with sunflower seed packs. John Farrell doesn’t get it. Orsillo is the best part of this:

2. Owens showed off a good pickoff move to catch Anthony Gose in the 5th.

3. A summary of Jackie Bradley, Jr.’s excellent day: