Top Play (WPA): The top three plays of the game all belonged to Braves’ hitters and all came in their three-run fourth inning against Red Sox starter Rick Porcello. With one out, Freddie Freeman singled and then stole second base. Nick Markakis then singled to score Freeman (WPA: + .108). Juan Uribe singled to right field advancing Markakis to second, who then advanced to third on a Kelly Johnson flyout to right and scored on a wild pitch (WPA: + .098). The wild pitch also allowed Uribe to move into scoring position, which proved costly as he came in to score on A.J. Pierzynski’s single to right field (WPA: + .082). All told it was a rough inning for Porcello, and especially frustrating as a couple of the hits were blooped in.

Bottom Play (WPA): The Red Sox made some noise in bottom of the ninth, and did it all with two outs. After the first two batters were retired, Pablo Sandoval doubled, and then Mike Napoli reached on an Andrelton Simmons error. Mookie Betts roped a 3-2 Jason Grilli slider back up the middle for a single, scoring Sandoval and allowing Napoli to get to third – the Red Sox’s top play of the night (WPA: + .051). The tying run came to the plate in the form of Alejandro De Aza, who was inserted as a pinch hitter for Sandy Leon. But De Aza, who as far as I can tell is only on this team because he is a better hitter than Jackie Bradley Jr., grounded out to Grilli to end the game (WPA: – .093).

Key Moment: This game, while a loss, could have been much worse. The Braves loaded the bases in the seventh inning against Porcello. With the game still in reach at 3-0, John Farrell summoned Robbie Ross Jr. from the bullpen to get the team out of the jam. Yes, you read that right. Robbie Ross Jr.. After allowing a single to Jace Peterson, the first batter he faced, Ross Jr. managed to get Cameron Maybin to ground into an inning-ending double play, extinguishing any chance for further damage.

A second key moment came from Sandoval, who connected for his first extra-base hit against a left-handed pitcher. He did so hitting left-handed, as it appears he will abandon switch-hitting for the foreseeable future. Coming into the game he had gone 62 plate appearances against lefties without an extra-base hit (13 as a LHB, 49 as a RHB). The double was the 200^th of his career, which he was well aware of, as he immediately asked for the baseball upon sliding into second base safely. His second double of the night, in the ninth off Grilli, was Pablo’s 1000^th career hit. It was quite a night of milestones for the Panda.

Trend to Watch: Player/team meetings. Players meet with their teammates and manager many, many times throughout the season, so it is not necessarily a big deal when a team meets and makes a point of telling the media a team meeting was held. But, after yesterday’s team meeting, the Red Sox have now had (by my count) four such meetings after ugly losses. Each time players and coaches have reported that the meeting was aimed at getting focused on the right things and moving in a positive direction. Here is a table with information related to performance around the dates of the meetings this season:

I am sure that if the Red Sox turn things around yesterday’s meeting will be held up as an important turning point. But the available evidence from the previous three times shows that the meetings approach has not been the boon it was intended to be. Perhaps the effect of the meetings is actually additive and had not yet crossed the critical threshold until now. Yes, that must be it. Not at all grasping at straws.

Coming next: The Red Sox continue their home-and-home, four-game series with the Braves tonight at Fenway. Wade Miley will be on the mound for the Red Sox. Miley, the center of some clubhouse controversy after his last start, will have an opportunity to get things back on track against the Braves, who have not hit left-handed pitching very well (71 wRC+). The Braves counter with young Julio Teheran, who is in the midst of his worst big league season statistically (4.78 ERA, 5.08 FIP). His strikeout rate is down, walk rate is up, and he has had trouble keeping the ball in the yard. He has already allowed 13 home runs this season, which is only nine fewer than the total he allowed in each of the previous two seasons. But, much of that issue stems from a ridiculous 17.3% HR/FB rate. Hopefully the Red Sox can jump on him early and maybe knock a few over the fence.

Photo by Mark L. Baer/USA Today Sports Images

Top Play (WPA): In the bottom of the 7^th inning with the score still tied at zero, the Red Sox scratched across the game’s only run, and did it all with two outs. Xander Bogaerts doubled to center, Sandy Leon then walked, bringing Rusney Castillo to the plate. Castillo battled Mike Pelfrey, eventually singling a 1-2 92 mph sinker up the middle scoring Bogaerts (WPA: + .180). Leon, with a poor base running decision, tried to go first-to-third on the single but was thrown out by Twins’ center fielder Aaron Hicks to end the inning.

Bottom Play (WPA): Coming into the game the Red Sox were third in baseball in grounding into double plays with 46. David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez lead the team with seven, which had them tied for the fourth most in the game with ten other players. Well, last night Ortiz got his eighth and took the team lead in what was the game’s bottom play. In the 6^th inning Dustin Pedroia led things off with a single, and then Mookie Betts advanced him to second with a single of his own. Ortiz then grounded into a double play, advancing Pedroia to third (WPA: – .139). Hanley Ramirez then flew out to the gap in left field on a ball that looked like it had a chance to do damage but the cold night knocked it down, ultimately ending the inning.

Key Moment: The next batter to come to the plate after Rusney Castillo had given the Red Sox the lead in the bottom of the 7^th was the Twins’ Aaron Hicks in the top of the 8^th inning. He drove a 1-1 Buchholz curveball to deep right field that appeared destined to knot the game at one. But Castillo comfortably tracked it back to the wall and hauled it in for the first out of the inning. Check it out here.

Trend to Watch: It has gotten to the point where Clay Buchholz cannot be lumped into any of the ‘Red Sox rotation is junk’ discussions. If you give him a mulligan for his April 12^th start against the Yankees (3.1 IP, 10 R, 9 ER), his ERA drops all the way from the 4.33 it was going into last night to 3.16, which is much more in line with the 3.06 FIP (3.15 xFIP) he has this season. Buchholz has put together a really solid run of great starts. Here are his last five (including last night):

• 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 2 BB, 8 SO

• 7.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 0 HR, 1 BB, 4 SO

• 7.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 HR, 2 BB, 4 SO

• 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 HR, 0 BB, 11 SO

• 6.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 0 HR, 3 BB, 3 SO

Unfortunately, in those five starts the Red Sox offense has managed run totals of 1, 1, 1, 1 and 6. With the latest bleak offensive showing last night Buchholz saw his number of 2015 starts with 0-2 runs of support increase to seven, which has him near the top of this season’s leaderboard. Ideally Buchholz continues his string of good outings (and generally solid season), and the offense starts pumping in some runs in support of his efforts.

Coming next: The Sox will wrap up their series with the Twins in a double-header tomorrow. In the first game, Eduardo Rodriguez will make his second big league start. He was excellent in his debut against the Rangers last Thursday. With another solid outing he could lock himself into a rotation spot for the foreseeable future. The Twins counter with Phil Hughes, who last time out against the Red Sox allowed four runs in 6.2 innings of work. The four runs were the Red Sox largest offensive output against these Twins last week. In Game 2 Rick Porcello will look to get back on track after his ugly outing in Minnesota last Wednesday in which he allowed six runs, and walked as many batters as he struck out (2). The Twins will send right-hander Trevor May to the mound to battle the Red Sox lineup. May sports a Red Sox-like 5.07 ERA, but a much more impressive 3.10 FIP supported by his 41:9 K:BB ratio. Sweeping the double-header would be a good way for this team to keep things moving in the right direction.

Photo by Bob DeChiara/USA Today Sports Images

Top Play (WPA): In the 5th inning with the game knotted at zero, Blake Swihart lead off the inning with a single to right field. He then advanced to second on a Dustin Pedroia single. With one out, Mookie Betts ripped an 89 mph Nick Martinez fastball to left field that knocked Swihart in and advanced Pedroia to second (WPA: + .130).

A close second top play of the game was Hanley’s solo home run that lead off the bottom of the 6th inning (WPA: + .120):

Bottom Play (WPA): The bottom play of the game immediately followed the top play of the game. After Mookie singled to drive in Swihart, Pablo Sandoval came to the plate with a chance to add to the Red Sox lead. Unfortunately, he grounded into a double-play to end the inning (WPA: – .092). The Red Sox grounded into five double plays on the night, bringing their season total to 42, which puts them in the top five in the game. The second and third worst plays of the game were also Red Sox players grounding into double plays: Swihart in the second inning with one out and runners on first and second (WPA: – .091), and Brock Holt in the sixth inning with nobody out and a runner on first (WPA: – .055). The GIDP is not going to help this offense get on track.

Key Moment: It is hard to determine the extent to which this moment had a real effect on the outcome of the game, but striking out Prince Fielder, who has been hotter than the dickens of late, in the first inning of your major league debut has to do wonders to ease anxiety. Eduardo Rodriguez did just that with a gorgeous 87 mph slider in a full count that Fielder whiffed on miserably. Not bad for his first strikeout in the major leagues. He then proceeded to carve up the Rangers lineup over 6.2 more excellent innings for a final line of 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 HR, 2 BB, 7 SO. It will be interesting to see if the Red Sox continue with their stated plan of sending him back to Pawtucket after the one start.

Trend to Watch: How the Red Sox handle David Ortiz over the next few weeks will be very interesting. Similar to 2009 when he started the season very slowly, Ortiz’s ability to produce at a high level is being questioned. Entering last night’s game he held a .245 TAv, and 80 wRC+. In Minnesota he was dropped down to the fifth spot in the lineup for the second and third games of the series; he went 1/8 with a double and no walks. Ortiz tells Nick Cafardo of The Boston Globe that his issues are not mechanical but rather an inability to identify pitches he can drive. Whatever it is, John Farrell is giving him a few days off during this trip to Arlington to work things out. While Ortiz told Cafardo his issues are not mechanical, the NESN telecast of last night’s game showed him pointing out aspects of his stance on printouts to Brian Butterfield, so who knows what is going on. Hopefully the few days off do him well and he gets back to knocking the ball all over the yard.

Continuing with another trend related to a middle of the order bat: The Red Sox and Ramirez have been adamant that his shoulder is not hampering his performance, but the numbers suggest otherwise. Prior to the injury he had a .326 isolated power (ISO) in his 103 plate appearance, since the injury (not including last night’s game) it is .044 in 75 PAs. Anything can happen in small numbers of plate appearances like these, so this change could just be random variation, but when there is a potential cause like his shoulder injury it needs to be considered as the issue. Either way, Ramirez had a double and a home run last night and looked more like he did in the early going of this season. If his shoulder is truly healthy he can get back to raking.

Coming next: The Sox continue their series with the Rangers, sending Steven Wright to the mound against Yovani Gallardo. Wright is making his fifth big league start, third this season. He has done a decent job filling in for the injured Justin Masterson. He will need to get his knuckler dancing in the humid Texas air, to keep their potent offense off balance. Gallardo, an offseason trade acquisition of the Rangers, has not pitched well. His 4.13 ERA and 4.16 FIP are both well above his career rates (3.71, 3.73, respectively). He has been allowing more contact than usual this season, ideally the Red Sox can make consistent, hard contact and get the offense rolling in a positive direction.

Photo by Tim Heltman/USA Today Sports Images