Before I get to the game recap, there’s some sad news to report out of Red Sox nation. John Farrell announced before the game that he’s been diagnosed with lymphoma and will take a medical leave for the rest of the season. The good news is that Farrell described his cancer as “localized and highly curable”, they removed the full cancerous mass, and that they discovered it in Stage 1. They were able to catch it early because of his hernia surgery last weekend. Here’s wishing John a full and speedy recovery.

If I hit one, I hit two. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

It goes without saying that everything baseball-related that happened last night is insignificant compared to Farrell’s health, but the game itself was one of the best of the season for the Red Sox. Just about everything went their way. In fact, there were so many good things that happened that putting them in paragraph form would take two geological ages, so I’ll recap them in bullets:

• Rusney Castillo went oppo in the bottom of the first, and Robbie Ross Jr. absolutely ATE IT pursuing that ball in the bullpen. Wish we had a better replay of that. Rusney would later have to leave the game due to a left foot contusion. Alejandro De Aza had two hits after replacing him.
• Travis Shaw went deep twice for the second time this season. Robbie Ross redeemed himself from the embarrassing performance he put on earlier and caught Shaw’s first one in his hat.
  
  He looked pretty pleased with himself. Glad someone is. Shaw’s second homer looked like it might’ve been catchable, but Mariner’s right fielder Seth Smith took his eye off the ball at the last second to brace himself before he crashed into the wall.
• Mookie made an incredible catch in deep left centerfield, banging into the Monster and robbing Robbie Cano of extra bases.
  
  Look how far he ran to track down that ball! And then, at a dead sprint, he timed his jump perfectly. Betts also had two hits including a triple.
• Jackie Bradley Jr. continues to hit the cover off the ball. Last night he was 3-5 with a double. He also made this dandy of a catch, possibly robbing Kyle Seager of his second dinger of the night. Jerry Remy echoed what Lefty and I said; he can’t remember anyone playing a better outfield than JBJ. The Rem Dawg of course played in the major leagues and has been around a lot longer than the two of us, so it’s higher praise but only slightly.
• Sandoval had two doubles and three total hits. One of his doubles knocked in runner #500 of his career.
• Brock Holt! had an RBI double, an RBI triple, and made a fine leaping grab with his back to the infield one play after JBJ’s catch.
• Perhaps most shocking of all, Joe Kelly was downright effective over 6 full innings, striking out 6 and walking two, while only allowing one run on the gopher ball to Seager. It was Pumpsie’s best start (and first quality start) since June 6th, and he’s now won three games in a row.

Funny how things work out when you hit, pitch, and defend well.

Notes:

-8 out of 9 Red Sox starters plus De Aza had multi-hit games.

–Papi is now slashing .258/.349/.505 on the year.

–Steven Wright has been placed on the 7-day concussion disabled list after taking a ball to the neck during batting practice in Miami. Let’s hope he doesn’t miss much more than a week, he has been pitching well.

–Koji in a cast talking to interim manager Torey Lovullo makes me sad.

(Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)