Postgame(s): Herrmann takes a beating, but stayed in for May

A handful of extras following a long day at Fenway Park:

— Twins manager Paul Molitor felt Danny Santana and Brian Dozier each made mental mistakes on a double play in Wednesday's first game. Santana was on third base, Dozier on first, when pinch-hitter Joe Mauer smashed a hard grounder at first baseman Mike Napoli.

Napoli tagged first base and quickly threw to second, where Dozier was tagged out as he slid into the base, ending the inning. Because it wasn't a force, however, Santana's run would have counted had he touched the plate before Dozier was tagged.

It didn't happen.

In hindsight, Dozier should have stopped halfway to allow time for Santana to score, Molitor said. And "I don't think Danny ran as hard as he could," the manager said. Santana disagreed, however, saying there was "no chance" to beat the tag.

Dozier thought he had a chance to beat the throw and keep the inning alive. "Your instincts take over," Dozier explained. "Down 6-1, you don't want to give up outs for a run. I thought I could haul to second, and hopefully me or Joe beats it out. I probably should have held up."

— The 90-mph foul tip that he took in the ribs Wednesday, the one covered with a thick ice packet, was definitely the worst blow he's taken this year, Chris Herrmann said after the game. Wait, he said, rolling up his sleeve to uncover a rich blue-and-red bruise on the inside of his right elbow — unless it was this one.

"They're both pretty sore," Herrmann said with a shrug. "It's just part of being a catcher."

True, but that one, a foul ball that Pedro Sandoval deflected onto Herrmann's unprotected rib cage as he reached for an outside pitch, even worried Molitor.

"You really have to be concerned about a broken rib there," Molitor said. "I asked him if he wanted to take a couple of throws, but he said it's on my left side. I watched the video — he was kind of torqued, and wide open and vulnerable."

Did he think about coming out of the game? "Nah," said Herrmann, who also drove in the Twins' first run with a double off the Green Monster. "We've got ice."

— There was one other reason Herrmann wouldn't leave the game: his pitcher.

"Trevor [May] was pitching his butt off. I'm not going to pull myself out of the game because I got hit in the ribs," he said. "I'm going to help Trevor win a ballgame."

He did, calling a game in which May used all four of his pitches effectively, but especially this one: The first.

May threw first-pitch strikes to 19 of the 23 batters he faced in the best start of his career, including all nine in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. No wonder he didn't walk a batter, rarely got behind in the count, and didn't allow a baserunner after the third inning.

"I was just trying to fill up the zone," May said. "I told myself before each inning, stay on it, stay on it."

He did, and the results are exactly what he had planned. "That's something I came into this year [focused on], doing a lot of work physically and mentally. That's a product of being consistent in everything I do," May explained after the Twins' 2-0 victory. "I said, if I'm going to get beat, I'm going to make the other team beat me."

The Red Sox couldn't, especially when May got them to chase high fastballs. "Trevor's got a rise ball, and it's hard for anybody to hit that," said Herrmann, who caught May several times in the minor leagues but never in the majors until Wednesday. "You saw it tonight — they couldn't hit it."

To Molitor, it's the natural evolution of a pitcher who is smart enough to take lessons from every start.

"We're pleased that he's come along and showed the maturation that you like to see in a young pitcher who's gaining experience and seems to be learning from both his success and when he struggles," Molitor said. "Tonight he kind of put us on his back and carried us through seven innings."

— Torii Hunter's 10-game hitting streak ended with an 0-for-4 in the first game, but Eddie Rosario extended his streak to eight games with a single in the second game. Rosario is batting .407 during his hot stretch.