Henry Owens left the mound with the lead for the second time in two major league starts, and this time the bullpen didn’t blow it. And Jackie Bradley, Jr., of all people, made sure that the lead was a little more comfortable for the relievers who’d have to protect it in the final innings. Before we get into it, though, the Sox made one pretty notable transaction after the game ended.

Justin Masterson was designated for assignment.

He was actually moderately effective in this matchup. He was the first reliever in the game for Owens, who’d started the sixth inning by giving up a ground rule double to Ian Kinsler. But he gave up a leadoff solo home run to first baseman Jefry Marte in the 7th, and that was it for his Red Sox career. Marte, whose career has spanned all of 16 major league games so far, pimped the hell out of it. One of the cockiest bat flips of the year. Anyway, like Masterson said himself later, he was on a one-year deal in Boston and he wasn’t part of any future plans, especially considering his 2015 performance.

The Sox struck first, in the bottom of the 2nd. With two outs and Alejandro De Aza on first, Blake Swihart reached on an error by Kinsler and Josh Rutledge beat out an infield single to load the bases. Bradley drew a five-pitch walk for his first RBI of the afternoon, and Brock Holt managed another infield single, bringing Swihart home to give Owens a 2-0 advantage.

After another quiet inning for Owens, he got into trouble very quickly in the 3rd. He walked Rajai Davis to start things off (control is probably Owens’ biggest issue), and Davis stole second on a 2-0 pitch that sailed high and outside to the backstop, allowing him to take third base as well. The 6-6 Owens nearly managed to strand Davis at third, but he eventually gave up a two-out RBI single to Victor Martinez to make the score 2-1, Boston.

The 4th and 5th innings were pretty quiet for both teams except for, oh yeah, Jackie Bradley channeling Willie Mays on an over-the-shoulder catch to deep center on a fly ball by Marte.

Between Masterson’s effective relief inning for Owens in the 6th and the solo shot he gave up to Marte in the 7th, Bradley took a high inside fastball from lefty Tom Gorzelanny to right center for a solo home run of his own to make it 3-1.

With the score 3-2 after Marte’s bomb and a clean 3 outs from Robbie Ross, Jr. in relief of Masterson, the Boston offense got to work immediately. David Ortiz and Travis Shaw put together back-to-back singles to start the inning (Ortiz’s was a ground ball to the third base side that no one had a chance at because of the shift). De Aza bunted to advance the runners and was just barely out at first. But after Ian Krol struck out Blake Swihart, the Sox had runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs and the lackluster combo of Rutledge and Bradley coming up next in the order.

Somewhat curiously, the Tigers elected to intentionally walk Rutledge (slashing .143/.250/.143 in 6 games with the Red Sox) in order to bring up Bradley for the lefty-lefty matchup. Bradley worked the count full before lining a triple to right field to drive in his third, fourth, and fifth runs of the game. Brock Holt singled to bring Bradley home for good measure, and that wrapped up the scoring for the game. 7-2, Boston.

Both Junichi Tazawa, in the 8th inning, and Jean Machi, in the 9th, were effective. Tazawa had a clean inning, which hasn’t been the norm for him recently. Marte was robbed again in the 9th on a deep fly ball when Rusney Castillo made a terrific running catch.

So hey, the Red Sox won the series! Unfortunately, they’re going to need to do a lot more than that to get back within spitting distance of 2015 significance. They’re going to have to get the brooms out for at least three or four series (probably more like six or seven), and soon.

Notes:

1. Hanley Ramirez had the day off after hitting a foul ball off his foot the other day, and he spent it by measuring Henry Owens’ foot size with sunflower seed packs. John Farrell doesn’t get it. Orsillo is the best part of this:

2. Owens showed off a good pickoff move to catch Anthony Gose in the 5th.

3. A summary of Jackie Bradley, Jr.’s excellent day:

Before anything else: Boston traded Mike Napoli to the Rangers on Friday in a post-deadline deal, for cash or a player to be named later (hopefully a player, because cash is boring). Like I’ve said before, the Red Sox were unlikely to keep Napoli next year, so it was best to get something, anything for him while they still could. I might say that this move is an indication of giving up on the season, but Nap was such an offensive detriment to the team this year that Travis Shaw or anyone else has a good shot at improving on his production in what’s left of the season.

The Red Sox didn’t tell their usual story on Friday night. They got out to an early 2-0 lead against recent Blue Jay and current Tiger Daniel Norris on a 2-out, 2-run double in the first inning by Hanley Ramirez, who knocked in Rusney Castillo and Xander Bogaerts, both of whom singled. Even better, David Ortiz hit a 2-out, 2-run home run in the top of the 3rd, bringing in Castillo again, who’d singled for the second time. 4-0, Boston.

Meanwhile, Joe Kelly got out to a hot start, looking dominant in recording his first six outs of the game by way of strikeout around two first-inning singles. He put most of them away with some nasty-looking breaking balls. Both the 2^nd and 3^rd innings went in the books as 1-2-3 frames.

The Sox got another run in the 4^th inning as the result of a rally that started with a single by Jackie Bradley, Jr. of all people. Buck Farmer (amazing name) relieved Norris after he gave up another single to Brock Holt, advancing Bradley to third. Jackie ended up scoring on a would-be double play that never turned from second base to give Kelly a 5-0 advantage.

But Kelly couldn’t keep us his total dominance, giving up a single to Ian Kinsler to start the 5^th and a ball in the gap to Victor Martinez that should absolutely have been a double. But Jackie Bradley tracked it down, somehow making it look fairly easy. Kinsler had already advanced past second base and had to turn on the jets to make it back to first before Bradley’s laser throw hit Travis Shaw’s glove at first. It was impossibly close for the degree of difficulty involved. He really probably is the best defensive outfielder alive.

Unfortunately, Kelly wasn’t able to completely capitalize on the defense behind him, immediately giving up a 2-run home run to J.D. Martinez, his 30^th of the season. With the score 5-2, Kelly got the last out of the inning by picking off Tyler Collins, who’d singled despite a tremendous diving effort by Xander Bogaerts, at first base.

Kelly also got help from his defense in getting out of the 5^th inning after giving up a walk and a single to start things off. Center fielder Anthony Gose lined to Holt at second, who tossed to Bogaerts to double off Alex Avila.

Boston got two more runs in the top of the 6^th inning. Ryan Hanigan was hit by a pitch (he’d later get removed for Blake Swihart) to lead off. Bradley grounded into a fielder’s choice and Castillo singled for the third time on the night, and Bogaerts hit a sharp ground ball double down the third base line to bring both runners around and make the score 7-2.

After starting the 6^th inning with a walk to Kinsler, a fly out by Victor Martinez, and a double by J.D. Martinez, Joe Kelly was lifted from the game and replaced with Robbie Ross, Jr., who did an excellent job in a 2^nd and 3^rd, 1 out situation, getting a pinch-hitting Rajai Davis to strike out swinging and third baseman Nick Castellanos to ground out to second.

Jean Machi had his first decent outing as a Red Sox reliever in the 7^th, giving up a double to catcher James McCann but nothing else. Justin Masterson had an equally decent inning in the 8^th, giving up only a single to J.D. Martinez, who ended up a triple short of the cycle. But Masterson ran into trouble in the bottom of the 9^th, giving up a leadoff double and a walk before striking out McCann. Gose walked too, and with the bases loaded and 1 out, John Farrell elected to bring in Koji Uehara to seal the win.

In a way, it worked out great. Koji got the last two outs of the inning for the unorthodox save. But the last out of the game came on a hard line drive back at the closer, who put his right arm in harm’s way to stop the ball and took the ball hard off his wrist.

He fielded the ball and threw to first for the game’s last out, but was in obvious pain as he came off the field. X-rays on Uehara’s wrist came back negative, which is positive! And these tweets should explain why Koji is the man:

Koji Uehara:”I consider my whole body to be the glove once I release the ball.” #RedSox — Steve Buckley (@BuckinBoston) August 8, 2015

Koji reiterated that he is OK. X-rays were negative, Felt good enough to joke in English that his wrist was broken and his season over — Gordon Edes (@GordonEdes) August 8, 2015