Top Play (WPA): Shaw’s homer, like, by a lot. Shaw’s two-run, go-ahead shot (+.400) was worth more positive WPA than the next nine plays combined. The Red Sox first basemen took a first-pitch 97 mile-per-hour fastball, well located low and inside, and redirected it towards its eventual landing spot 400-some feet away in the right field bleachers. Here, watch it again.

It’s tough to get a read on Shaw’s long-term fit in Boston. His minor-league performance doesn’t really jump out at you — he struggled in Double-A as a 23-year-old in 2013, and he didn’t exactly fare much better in parts of two seasons in Triple-A Pawtucket over the last two years. So far in the big leagues, however, it’s been a different story, as Shaw has posted a shiny .312/.356/.591 slash line in 101 plate appearances. The numbers will eventually come back to earth, but who knows, maybe he’s Brian Daubach Version 2.0.

Bottom Play (WPA): The White Sox had good scoring chances in both the fifth and sixth innings, but Porcello worked out of both jams unscathed. In the fifth, with one out and runners on the corners, Tyler Flowers flied out to shallow right field (-.089), failing to drive in the runner. In the sixth, with two outs and runners at second and third, Porcello got Adam LaRoche to fly out to center field (-.087), preserving the shutout.

Chris Sale also worked out of a number of jams. In the second inning, the Red Sox loaded the bases for Hanley Ramirez with two down. Sale worked Ramirez up and away with hard stuff all night, and in this at-bat, he got Hanley to swing through a 1-2 fastball to end the inning.

Key Moment: The real winner here is Shaw’s home run, but we already discussed that. In the bottom of the fifth, the White Sox had runners on the corners with two outs. Porcello induced a weak grounder off the bat of Tyler Saladino toward the hole between first and second, and Josh Rutledge, picked up in the Shane Victorino trade, made an outstanding barehanded flip to get the out. Rutledge was shading Saladino toward second base, too, which meant he had to run a long way just to get to the ball. Dustin Pedroia would be proud. Give credit to Shaw, as well, for realizing that his best move was heading to first base rather than trying to field the grounder.

Trend to Watch: The likely tinkering the Red Sox did with Porcello during his absence seemed to work. According to Brooks Baseball, Porcello upped his sinker usage from 34 percent during his previous 2015 starts to 46 percent last night. He also peppered the lower regions of the strike zone, particularly with his sinker, as you can see here. Whatever Porcello was trying to do earlier in the season — throw more four-seamers and get more strikeouts, it seemed — wasn’t working. Perhaps he just functions optimally as low-strikeout, high-groundball kind of guy, and even if that accompanies a high-threes/low-fours ERA, it sure beats the iteration of Porcello we saw from April through July.

Of course, it’s only one start. Porcello threw seven solid innings against the Tigers on July 24th, just five days before he allowed 10 hits in two innings against the White Sox in his final start before hitting the disabled list. Everything might not be fixed yet, but one good start is better than one bad one. There’s hope here.

Coming Next: The Red Sox get Thursday off before meeting the unstoppable force that is the New York Mets on Friday night. The Mets have won six straight, outscoring their opponents 64 to 35 during that stretch. Yeah, the Mets. They’re gonna be tough. Boston will get Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, and Noah Syndergaard in the three-game weekend series. On Monday the Red Sox return to Fenway for a three-gamer against that other New York team.

Photo by Caylor Arnold/USA Today Sports Images

Top Play (WPA): Undoubtedly the biggest play of the night was the seventh-inning double by Trayce Thompson (.433).  This play gave Thompson his third hit of the night and put him a homer shy of the cycle.  Melky Cabrera and Avisail Garcia came in to score, giving the White Sox the 5-4 lead and ultimately the victory.  After this debacle Alexi Ogando, who really should have been in the game earlier, came in to put an end to the bleeding.

Bottom Play (WPA): The bottom play of the night comes to us by way of the White Sox’s best player, Jose Abreu (-.114), who grounded into a double play with Adam Eaton headed to third base during the fifth inning.  One positive take from the night was at least Abreu was held to just a lone single.

For the Red Sox the bottom play came from Josh Rutledge, who struck out vs. Quintana in the fifth inning with men on first and third (-.089).

Key Moment: The lead changed four times before Thompson sealed the deal with a double in the bottom on the seventh.  Miley shouldn’t have been in a position to give up that double anyhow considering a meeting took place at the mound earlier in the inning with the Sox leading 4-2 and Miley sitting at 98 pitches.  The 99^th pitch was an RBI by Melky Cabrera and then things just unraveled.  Someone should have been warm in the pen with a lead and Miley up against 100 pitches. This was a coaching mistake.

I understand that the bullpen is overworked with so many poor starts this season but with a chance to win a baseball game this mistake cannot be overlooked.  Anytime you can get a lead and close to 100 pitches out of your starter you need to turn that over to your pen, especially when your starter is lucky to have gotten to that point.

Trend to Watch: Hanley Ramirez: first baseman? Four hours before the game today Ramirez was seen taking grounders at first accompanied by David Ortiz and Brian Butterfield.  Twitter subsequently blew up with talk of this possible move.  The decision was said to have come top-down from Dave Dombrowski and was discussed with John Farrell and Torey Lovullo.

To me the sooner that this switch can happen the better, any clarity we can have about Ramirez’s ability to play first base gives the Sox more information going into the off-season.  He certainly would be hard pressed to perform worse than he has in left field.

Coming Next: The return of Rick Porcello. As if he didn’t need all the help he could get in any contest opposing him on the mound is Chris Sale.  If there was ever a time to pick a night to go to the movies, tomorrow may be the night.  The impending beatdown of Porcello may be “R” rated in its own right.

Photo by Matt Marton/USA Today Sports Images