BOSTON—There seems to be no identifiable fifth starter in the Blue Jays rotation, no one that could be perceived as the weakest link, someone to skip over if necessary. It was presumed Aaron Sanchez was that man after he was the final pitcher named to the starting staff in the spring. But it could be argued that Sanchez, after three starts, has been the team’s best pitcher.

You could suggest R.A. Dickey is that fifth man right now, but he is the only one in the group that has ever pitched 200 innings in a season, and he has done it for five straight seasons.

J.A. Happ made his case for a ranking better than five on Monday. The 33-year-old left-hander worked seven strong innings and one batter into the eighth, keeping the Jays in the game until the offence broke out in the eighth.

“That’s always the goal, keep them in there and you know (the offence is) going to keep battling,” Happ said as improved to 2-0 with a 1.89 ERA. “That was a huge (eighth) inning for us against a tough pitcher (Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel) and we had some great at-bats. It was a fun win.”

The Red Sox opened the scoring in the second inning against Happ, just the fifth time in 14 games the Jays’ opponents have scored first. With one out, Hanley Ramirez reached out and sliced a double that took one hop around the Pesky Pole and into the seats. One out later, third baseman Josh Rutledge lined a double to the alley in right-centre.

“The pitch Hanley hit for a double was a pretty good pitch and the 0-2 (to Rutledge) was a pretty good pitch too, maybe caught the edge of the plate,” Happ said. “Maybe I needed to try to get him to chase, but I feel there was enough today where we could keep them off-balance.”

The Jays’ rotation over the first 14 games of the season has a combined 7-3 record with a 3.27 ERA. The 88 innings by Jays starters, just under 6 1/3 innings per outing, is the most by any starting staff in the American League.