Rich Hill is my new favorite baseball player. I’ll admit that he kind of passed me by when he did some pitching for Boston from 2010-12, but he’s definitely in my line of sight now. Over 14 innings, Hill has struck out 20 and walked 1. He’s the first Red Sox pitcher to ever record 10 or more strikeouts in his first two starts. It’s been utter dominance, and aside from one shaky inning yesterday against the Blue Jays, no one has been able to figure him out.

The Sox should probably have scored in the top of the 1st to give Hill an early cushion, but a Mookie Betts walk and a Dustin Pedroia single that moved Betts to third proved inconsequential as Xander Bogaerts lined out and David Ortiz grounded into a shift-induced double play.

Hill kept going from where he left off against the Rays in his last start, putting the Jays down in order in the 1st. But in the 2nd, after a single and a strikeout, Dioner Navarro guessed right on a high first-pitch fastball, sending it over the left field wall to give Hill his first earned runs of 2015.

Immediately following this rude awakening, Kevin Pillar laid down a bunt that Travis Shaw and Hill could’ve played a little better…

Pillar advanced to second on another single and Ben Revere brought him home with yet another one-bagger. Kind of amazingly, Hill still technically struck out the side.

The Red Sox offense gutted out a little support for Hill in the 4th inning. Bogaerts got an infield single off Mark Buehrle to start things off. Then, when Bogaerts kept running to third on an awkwardly handled toss from first baseman Chris Colabello to Buerhle to retire Ortiz, Buehrle (a four-time Gold Glove winner) threw the ball away on a difficult first-to-third attempt, and Bogaerts scored. Shaw infield singled too, and Rusney Castillo doubled to put men on second and third, but Sandy León popped out to end the inning. 3-1, Toronto.

Fortunately, that one run wasn’t all the offense had to offer. Jackie Bradley, Jr. (recording a hit in consecutive games for the first time since September 7th) singled to start the 5th, but after a fielder’s choice and a fly out, Boston was left with Mookie Betts on first with 2 outs. Bogaerts and Ortiz, however, continued to atone for their 1st inning failings. Xander singled and Big Papi walked to load the bases, and Shaw came through with a huge opposite field single to tie the game at 3.

Meanwhile, Hill kept dominating, retiring the last 7 Blue Jays he faced before giving way to Noe Ramirez.

PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Hill	7.0	7	3	3	0	10	0	1.93

Before Ramirez actually appeared, however, the Red Sox put Hill in line for a win. Pablo Sandoval benefited from another pitcher error (this one by former closer Brett Cecil) to lead off, and after Castillo advanced Sandoval to second with a ground out, León came to the plate again. I’m sure hopes were not high on the Boston bench: the catcher had popped to first in the 2nd, second in the 4th, and third in the 6th. I’m no mathemagician, but he was clearly due to pop out to the Blue Jays’ catcher. Instead, he singled to move Pablo to third, and Bradley came through with a full count sacrifice fly to drive the go-ahead run home. 4-3, Boston. Pablo actually probably should have been out on the throw, but Navarro couldn’t handle it on the bounce:

Ramirez got a hold for his work in the 8th inning, despite allowing a single to Edwin Encarnacion and throwing the ball away on an attempted pickoff of Encarnacion’s pinch runner, Dalton Pompey. He had him if Shaw could’ve made the catch, but the throw was pretty low. Anyway, with Pompey at second base, Ramirez got Colabello to ground out to end the 8th.

Robbie Ross, Jr. gave up a two-out ground rule double to a pinch-hitting Russell Martin, but struck out Justin Smoak to notch the 4th save of his career.

Notes:

1. Out of the 14 innings Hill has pitched so far, 8 of them have been perfect 1-2-3 frames.