That 2-1 win in 11 innings last night just “felt” like a big one. Now the Red Sox head to Toronto and are back within one game of the .500 mark. They’ve been one game under .500 three times before this season and lost two straight all three times. Fourth time’s the charm?

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* – Carl Crawford drove in his first extra-innings run as a member of the Red Sox last night, becoming the 77th Sox player with at least one since they began tracking such stats in 1974. The club leaders in that span:

16 – Dwight Evans
13 – Jim Rice
 8 – David Ortiz
 8 – Manny Ramirez
 8 – Troy O’Leary

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* – David Ortiz came to the plate in the 10th inning last night with the winning run on third against Twins’ reliever Jose Mijares. The lefty threw Ortiz five straight sliders, then wasted a fastball before retiring Ortiz on a groundball into the shift with a sixth slider. Why so many breaking balls? Well, Ortiz has handled fastballs from lefties to the tune of 11-for-23 (.478; all 11 hits are singles) this season compared to 1-for-12 (.083) against breaking balls from lefties. That’s why.

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* – Lowest batting average allowed during innings one through three (min. 10 batters faced each inning in 2011):

.104 – Josh Johnson, FLA (6-for-67)
.118 – Josh Beckett, BOS (8-for-68)
.128 – Chris Young, NYM (5-for-39)

Other Red Sox:

.219 – Jon Lester (16-for-73)
.259 – Clay Buchholz (21-for-81)
.270 – John Lackey (20-for-74)
.286 – Daisuke Matsuzaka (20-for-70)

Dice-K, Lackey, and Buchholz have combined to allow 35 runs in the first three innings. Beckett has allowed one.

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* – Is Lasik in Pedroia’s future or something? Pedroia has swung and missed 59 times already this season. In 2009, he missed on just 81 swings ALL SEASON. He has whiffed on 20.7 percent of his swings in 2011, after entering the season with the second lowest career swing and miss percentage ever among players with “pop” since they began tracking the stat in 1988 (min. 9,000 pitches seen and a .450+ slugging percentage):

 6.8% – Tony Gwynn
 8.6% – Dustin Pedroia
 9.9% – Brian Giles
11.8% – Barry Larkin
11.9% – Mike Greenwell
11.9% – Joe Mauer

As a team, the Red Sox have missed on 19.7 percent of their swings this season, which would be their highest since 2001.

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* – Even though Jason Kubel blooped an 8th inning hit off Papelbon that tied the game, Twins’ third-place hitters combined to go just 1-for-5 last night. For the season, opposing number three hitters, usually the best all-around hitter in the lineup, have hit just .188 with one home run against the Red Sox. Since 1988, no team has gone through a full season without opposing number three hitters batting at least .227 (2005 A’s) or hitting at least nine home runs (1993 Phillies).

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* – The Red Sox have not allowed more than one home run in any of their last 15 home games, tied for their second longest such streak since 1993, trailing only an 18-gamer last July.

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* – Last night, the Red Sox scored fewer than 10 runs for the 44th straight game. They’ve only had one longer drought since 1993: A 47-game streak from late ’06 through early ’07. Theirs is the fifth longest current streak in baseball:

101 – A’s
 60 – Mets
 58 – Nationals
 46 – Pirates
 44 – Red Sox

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* – Sox pitchers walked three batters last night, snapping at two games their streak of allowing two or fewer walks. It was their first such streak of consecutive games in their last 60.

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* – In his career, Daisuke Matsuzaka has allowed an OPS of .787 in the first inning and just .557 in the second inning. That drop of 230 points from the first to second innings is the fifth biggest since they began tracking the stat in 1974 (min. 350 batters faced in each inning):

.282 – Jeremy Bonderman
.265 – Mike Maroth
.243 – Darren Dreifort
.233 – Kyle Davies
.230 – Daisuke Matsuzaka

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* – Good job by Red Sox management to have Beckett miss pitching against the Blue Jays in Toronto this week. He has allowed 13 HR there in only 135 opponent at-bats, and average of one every 10.4 AB. That’s the lowest/worst rate by any opposing pitcher at Toronto since 1974 (min. 130 AB):

10.4 – Josh Beckett
11.5 – Carl Pavano
11.6 – James Shields

Note this: Clay Buchholz is also scheduled to miss the Toronto series. Since 1974, he is the ONLY opposing pitcher that has allowed ZERO home runs against the Blue Jays in at least 130 at-bats (141).

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* – Going into last weekend, the Marlins had won all 16 games in which they had homered in 2011. Then, they lost despite hitting a home run on Saturday and again last night. Now the Phillies, who beat Florida last night, are tied with the Marlins for baseball’s best record when hitting a homer at 17-2. The Red Sox are 10-9 when they hit a home run this season.

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* – Ran across this: The A’s have lost the last 27 times that they’ve allowed five or more runs, with their last win in such a game coming last July 18. The longest such streak ever by an Oakland team is 33 (1978-1979). The AL record is 43, by the Senators (1961-1962). They are half way to the MLB record losing streak in such games, 54, by the 1963-1964 Mets.

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Thanks go out, as always, to Baseball-Reference, Joe Lefkowitz’ Pitch F/X Tool, and Baseball Musings for their statistical resources.