Top Play (WPA): Oddly enough, Hanley Ramirez’s two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh with David Ortiz on base takes the cake here at a whopping .419. I’m not going to go back and check, because I’m lazy, but I think that’s the highest-WPA play of the year for the Sox. Give plenty of praise to Hanley, but don’t forget the tough at-bat Ortiz put up against LHP Tony Sipp to get on base in the first place.

The next-best plays come courtesy Carlos Correa (.285) and Evan Gattis (.226), who hit back-to-back homers off of Alexi Ogando in the seventh. This was a good game, but Boston needs to fix this bullpen.

Finally, Pablo Sandoval’s RBI double to left in the sixth (.180) and Mookie Betts’ double in fifth (.135) round out the top five.

Bottom Play (WPA): In the bottom of the fifth, Xander Bogaerts came to the plate with two men on and one out. Bogaerts grounded out softly to second base, but Ryan Hanigan was off with contact at third, which was ill-advised given his lack of speed and Houston’s defensive alignment. Hanigan was out at the plate, and while Bogaerts reached first safely Hanigan’s out was still enough to register this as the worst play of the day (-.116).

Houston’s two worst plays came in the bottom of the ninth, courtesy Carlos Correa and Colby Rasmus (who fouled out bunting), while Boston’s next-worst plays came in the form of Shane Victorino and Ramirez GIDPs.

Key Moment: Ramirez’s homer, for sure. This game had a very “here we go again” quality when Ogando gave up back-to-back bombs, but Ortiz and Ramirez answered the bell, as you’d hope the middle of your lineup would. Ramirez looks like an offensive force again, and if he plays defense the way he has for the past two weeks and not the way he did the first two months of the season, that contract will work out just fine.

Trend to Watch: There are a few trends here.

For starters, the Red Sox finally look like the offense we all thought we’d see at the season’s start, and that’s with Dustin Pedroia on the DL and Mike Napoli MIA. Betts, Brock Holt, Bogaerts, Ortiz, Ramirez and Sandoval all feel like real threats to do damage in any given at-bat, and contributors like Alejandro De Aza, Shane Victorino and even Ryan Hanigan all seem capable of pitching in, too. This is more like it.

#Ed had a strange start, dominating in the sense that he struck out eight Astros in just five innings but struggling in the sense that he only lasted five innings. Still five innings of one-run ball against the AL’s best team is pretty decent for a guy who was in Triple-A six weeks ago. He continues to be a hugely important addition to the rotation.

Finally, the Sox have now won seven of their last 10 games. They need to keep playing at this pace to matter, but it’s great to see nonetheless.

Coming Next: The Red Sox have today off before hosting the Marlins for two games. Wade Miley is set to face off against Dan Haren on Tuesday. Sweeping the Ms before the division-leading Yankees come to town later in the week could make the AL East race a lot more interesting in short order. We’ll see!

Photo by Winslow Townson/USA Today Sports Images

Top Play (WPA): The game got a little scary for the Red Sox in the seventh. The inexplicably solid Tommy Layne came on to face a lineup of right handers, and who’d have thunk, it went poorly. The exclamation point was a two-run home run off the bat of Jose Reyes (.176) that brought the Jays within a run. Stupid Blue Jays taking the top play in a game they lost. Let us enjoy this, Canada.

Boston, meanwhile, did all their damage at the start of the game. Their first two runs came in the first against an impressively unimpressive Marco Estrada, who allowed both runs without allowing a hit. They were scored on bases loaded walks from Mike Napoli (.095) and Alejandro “Turning Point” De Aza (.097).

Also this:

@RedSox_Thoughts pic.twitter.com/MkMLkD2ihe

— Jeremy Forsyth (@SoxFanForsyth) July 1, 2015

Bottom Play (WPA): Although this was a relatively close game throughout, it never really felt like the win was in question for most of the game. The fact that Reyes’ homer brought it within one was a little shocking. This is my way of saying the bottom plays were wholly uninteresting. The worst was when Danny Valencia hit a routine fly ball to right field to lead off the ninth (-.088). This was followed by yet another routine fly ball to right field, this time from Dioner Navarro (-.065).   This was the bottom play on opposite day:

@RedSox_Thoughts pic.twitter.com/MkMLkD2ihe — Jeremy Forsyth (@SoxFanForsyth) July 1, 2015

Key Moment: The key moment here came in the fifth inning. Eduardo Rodriguez had a good outing overall, but there were still some hiccups along the way. As Jerry Remy pointed out many times on the broadcast, he was still tipping his pitches. Devon Travis led off that inning by smashing a double off the right field wall, and moved over to third on a grounder. Rodriguez now had a man on third with one out and Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion coming up. Then, the young pitcher turned on #Ed mode. He finished off an impressive at bat by blowing away Donaldson with a fastball to record the second out, and got Bautista to ground out to end one of Toronto’s few legitimate threats.

Also this:

@RedSox_Thoughts pic.twitter.com/MkMLkD2ihe

— Jeremy Forsyth (@SoxFanForsyth) July 1, 2015

Trends to Watch: Rodriguez had a much-needed bounce back last night. After getting lit up for most of this month, he made some necessary adjustments and beat the best offense in the league. He was still tipping his pitches a bit, but it was at least much more subtle than his last few times out. One start doesn’t heal all wounds, but being able to string a few of these together will be huge for him.

Remember when Pablo Sandoval was really bad at defense for a little while? That was weird. He’s back to being his old above-average self, it appears, as he made a few really nice plays last night. He’ll never have plus range, but his footwork is outstanding and he has plenty of arm strength to make the tough throws.

Mookie Betts just keeps hitting. After some expected first-full-year struggles, it looks like he’s made the key adjustment and is destroying baseballs. He had a couple of hits last night, including a double, and also showed off his impressive speed.

Boston has now won four of its last five in a key stretch against divisional rivals. There is still a long way to go back to contention, but scoring more runs than their opponents lately has been neat.

Also this:

@RedSox_Thoughts pic.twitter.com/MkMLkD2ihe — Jeremy Forsyth (@SoxFanForsyth) July 1, 2015

Coming Next: The Red Sox and Blue Jays will continue their series this afternoon with a matinee while our neighbors to the north celebrate Canada Day. Rick Porcello will look to get back on track against a potent lineup in an extreme hitters’ park. Should be fun. Mark Buerhle will take the hill for Toronto. The veteran lefty, while not intimidating, is having yet another quietly solid season, something he’s done for the last 300 years. The series will wrap up on Thursday with Wade Miley taking on Matt Boyd before Boston heads back home to welcome the Astros to town.

And hopefully more of this:

@RedSox_Thoughts pic.twitter.com/MkMLkD2ihe

— Jeremy Forsyth (@SoxFanForsyth) July 1, 2015

Photo by Dan Hamilton/USA Today Sports Images