The Red Sox, perhaps basking in the afterglow of David Ortiz’s 500th home run on Saturday, rested a few starters on Sunday afternoon: Devin Marrero got the start in place of Pablo Sandoval at 3rd base, Sandy León played catcher (giving both Ryan Hanigan and Blake Swihart a rest), and probably worst of all, Allen Craig DHed in place of Ortiz.

Also getting an extra day of rest were each of the Boston starting pitchers. Rich Hill, who’d been tearing it up earlier in 2015 with the Long Island Ducks, has been pitching for Pawtucket since early August after signing a minor league deal with the Red Sox. Don Orsillo mentioned that he’s shifted to an over-the-top delivery from a sidearm motion since his last major league stint. Whatever Hill changed, it’s working, because he was absolutely excellent today.

Put it this way: Rays’ starter Drew Smyly pitched very well. In fact, he was borderline dominant:

PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Smyly	6.0	4	0	0	2	11	0	3.14

His 11 strikeouts tied a career high. But Hill was better.

PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Hill	7.0	1	0	0	1	10	0	0.00

I should point out that Hill did hit 2 batters, and that’s not reflected in the box score. But still, this was absolute dominance. Mostly, as you can see below, because the Rays had no idea what to make of Hill’s curveball.

Unfortunately for Hill, the Red Sox offense couldn’t take advantage of the opportunities it had in regulation. There were Boston runners in scoring position in each of the first 3 innings, but Smyly escaped each time. Hill, on the other hand, only faced a threat in the bottom of the 3rd, when J.P. Arencibia hit an infield single to Xander Bogaerts and hit Mikie Mahtook to put Arencibia on second base. But he got Evan Longoria to pop out on a 2-0 count, and the inning ended.

The Red Sox got another chance in the 7th, after Smyly exited the game and was replaced by Steven Geltz. Craig, defying the gods, hit an infield single and Marrero moved Craig to second with a single of his own. If there were ever a time to pinch hit, it was now, with Sandy León (.177/.240/.198) coming to the plate with one out and two good offensive catchers on the bench. Instead, he struck out badly on a splitter in the dirt. Alex Colome replaced Geltz and struck out Jackie Bradley, Jr., who had a tough night at the plate (0-5 with 3 strikeouts).

Jean Machi pitched a clean 8th and faced the first batter of the 9th, Asdrubal Cabrera. Cabrera laid down a bunt that looked absolutely perfect until Devin Marrero made an unbelievable play to throw him out. At this point, Torey Lovullo, who’d had both Robbie Ross, Jr. and Tommy Layne warming up, decided that he’d rather have a righty come in to relieve Machi. So to give Noe Ramirez sufficient time to warm up, he walked out as slowly as possible and had a 90-second chat with his entire infield before home plate umpire Angel Hernandez walked out to the mound. Hernandez was in a good mood, laughing as he signaled to the Red Sox bullpen himself, tapping his right arm.

Both Boston and Tampa botched bunt attempts to move leadoff runners to second base in the 10th inning. In the 11th, Travis Shaw nearly turned enough on an outside pitch to send it out of the park, but it was just short and Steven Souza, Jr. made a great leaping catch. Craig struck out to end the inning with Rusney Castillo standing at second. The Red Sox made consecutive awkward catches to record outs in the bottom half of the inning, the last of which was this catch that Bradley lost in the lights and the first of which was this late attempt at a dive by Mookie Betts after some miscommunication:

Heath Hembree gave up a one-out double in the 12th, but intentionally walked pinch hitter John Jaso and induced a 6-4-3 double play to escape.

Through 12, the Red Sox had 10 hits and the Rays had 2. Something had to give. Either Boston was going to have squandered a good, if unlucky, offensive performance, or they’d keep it up and reap the rewards. Thankfully, it was the latter.

Finally, Pedroia, Bogaerts, and Shaw strung back-to-back-to-back singles together and loaded the bases with 1 out. And Rusney Castillo had the good sense to hit a clean single to left field, scoring both Pedroia, who hesitated in case it could be good, and Bogaerts, who appeared to be running on contact. With men on 1st and 2nd with 1 out, Craig was up and – well, let’s just say the inning ended.

Ross, after a lot of warming up, finally entered the game and got the save, his second of the season. He got a little help from Pedey, too.

Notes:

1. The Red Sox are now 7-3 in their last 10 games, making them the hottest team in the AL.

2. Allen Craig really probably does not belong in the bigs right now. I feel for him, but…I mean, .127/.227/.167 does not contribute.