The Red Sox took two out of three on the road against the defending AL East champs this weekend, winning their first series of the year.

Friday Night: Red Sox 8, Blue Jays 7

What started out as an unmitigated disaster turned out to be the most fun I’ve had watching a Red Sox game in a long time. Joe Kelly took the hill and had an outing that was a perfect encapsulation of his career. Threw hard, at times looked unhittable, left pitches up, missed spots, and ended up getting rocked to the tune of 7 earned in 3 innings.

In Spring Training, Kelly worked on sacrificing some velocity to have better control of his pitches. In innings 1-3 Kelly stuck to the plan, and it was effective, but It seemed like when he got in trouble he reverted to old familiar ways. He hit 99 on the gun in the bottom of the 4th, when the Blue Jays would tag him for 6 runs. He left the game with the score 7-2 bad guys.

But the Brock Star picked up ol’ Pumpsie.

In the top of the 6th, Xander doubled, and Ortiz and Shaw walked, packing the sacks for Brock, who already had an RBI double on the evening.

7-6 bad guys.

In the top of the next inning, the Sox strung together four consecutive singles to take an 8-7 lead. Pedroia and Bogaerts set the table, and Ortiz and Ramirez knocked in the game-tying and go-ahead runs, just like they drew it up. 8-7 good guys.

Craig Kimbrel locked down the 9th for his first save in a Boston uniform.

The 2015 Red Sox came back to win after trailing by 4 runs or more exactly one time (I don’t have the numbers on me, but I think the 2013 team did it like 1,000 times). The 2016 squad has thus far responded well after getting down early. The fact that they always seem to be down early is another issue.

Saturday Afternoon: Red Sox 8, Blue Jays 4

Rick Porcello started this one and for a minute it looked like his start would mirror Joe Kelly’s from the day before. He gave up a pair of two-run home runs to Jose Bautista in the first and third, putting his club down early. One brilliant Red Sox blogger said before the season started that keeping the ball in the yard was one of the keys to Porcello’s season. Gopher balls aside, Freddie pitched pretty well, walking one and striking out 7 over 6 innings. The seven strikeouts are nice, but Rick gets in trouble when he falls in love with the K instead of keeping ball down in the zone to get groundouts.

The runs came thanks to a steady offensive attack (the Sox had 11 hits), and got some help from R.A. Dickey knuckleballs that fluttered too much for Jays’ catcher Josh Thole to catch.

Hanley also “tripled” when his looping would-be-single hit a seam in the Rogers Centre turf and bounced over Joey Bats’ head.

Sunday Afternoon: Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 0

The Red Sox had been scoring at an unsustainable pace to open up the season, so I feel like this was just a regression to the mean.

Steven Wright was great for Boston:

PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC-ST	ERA
Wright (L, 0-1)	6.2	6	2	1	3	5	0	118-78	1.35

Joe Kelly better step it up.

Notes:

-Travis Shaw has an OPS of .859 and is making plays like this at third base. Meanwhile, Pablo Sandoval is batting .000 with 4 strikeouts in 6 at bats, one busted belt on a swing and miss, and has an error in the field.

-Hanley was 3 for 4 with a double on Sunday, boosting his average to .455. Of course, Hanley was a monster last April too, hitting 10 home runs in the first month of the season, and we all know how that turned out. But his early success this season is more sustainable. He’s taking the ball to the opposite field on a regular basis, hitting for average first and letting the power come naturally. Obviously he won’t hit .455, but Hanley’s swing is much more compact than last season, and his leg kick isn’t nearly as high, giving him more bat control. Oh and by the way, he hasn’t made an error at first base.

-It’s early in the season and Brock Holt is raking. In other news, water is wet.

-Today is the home opener, Righty will be there, and all is right in the world.