I could do this 498 more times and never get bored. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

The Red Sox took the series finale and two out of three from the first-place Jays with yet another strong outing from Joe Kelly, that was backed by yet another big-time offensive output.

Pumpsie wasn’t fantastic, but was able to keep his win streak alive by going 5.2 innings and allowing only one run. More importantly, it was his seventh straight start giving up two earned runs or less. It was good to see him work in and out of trouble and come up with outs despite having difficulty locating his pitches. He labored through the 4th inning, when he surrendered his only run, but was able to escape a bases-loaded jam by dotting the outside corner and striking out Russell Martin looking.

Papi hit number 498 on a center-cut fastball, depositing it over the wall in the deepest part of the ballpark.

Mookie led the offensive charge, going 2-5 with a dinger,

a double and three RBIs. He now has a 15-game hitting streak.

Hanigan provided infantry support, going 3-3 with three RBIs, two doubles, a walk and a run scored. Ryan is batting .269 with a really impressive .361 on-base percentage. The Red Sox couldn’t have asked for anything more from Hanigan this year after being thrust into the starting role when Christian Vazquez went down… Besides maybe getting his throwing hand behind his back or his leg when he’s catching so he doesn’t miss two months due to an easily avoidable injury. I’d look for Dave Dombrowski to deal Hanigan or Swihart this offseason while their values are at their highest and Vazquez waits in the wings.

Other highlights:

• Bogaerts is still raking. X was 2-4 with a double and two runs scored. He also had this nice flip to start a double play. Concerns about his play in the field seem about as distant a memory as Bobby Valentine.
• Travis Shaw was 1-3 with a walk and a run scored.
• Panda was 1-3 with an RBI and a run scored
• Rusney was 2-4 with a double and two runs scored. He also nailed Josh Donaldson trying for two after hitting a bullet off the wall in left. Castillo had an unbelievably quick turn and accurate throw to snuff out the MVP.
• Loyal reader Geoff pointed out that Joe Kelly stared down Jose Bautista after striking him out to end the 5th, and when Bautista took the field in the bottom half of the frame he told Kelly to peep the standings on the scoreboard. (Don’t pay attention to the audio. My sources – Geoff – say that he was talking to Kelly, not a fan).

Notes:

–Jean Machi thinks he’s Rod Beck all of the sudden.

-Quality starts are a useful statistic but don’t always tell the whole story. If Kelly had recorded one more out but given up two more runs, it would’ve been a quality start. As it stands, his 5.2 innings and one run were not.

-Pumpsie is the first Red Sox pitcher to win eight straight starts since Pedro won 9 in a row in ’99. Speaking of which, today is the anniversary of the one-hit, 17 strikeout game against the Yankees in that legendary ’99 season.

Pretty awesome that he pitched that well just to stick it to Joe Kerrigan. Also awesome that current Red Sox hitting coach Chili Davis had the only hit, a homerun, off of Petey and basically admitted the he got lucky by sitting fastball and not even trying to hit anything else Pedro threw.

-Despite the Sox’ victory, the Jays stayed 1.5 games up on the Yankees, who lost to the Orioles again. Win-win.