It was a good night for the sons of Ben Cherington. At least for one of them.

The dearly departed former Red Sox general manager’s memory has not fared well recently with announcements that $72.5 million signee Rusney Castillo had been shipped off to Triple A in the hope he can learn how to play baseball and $95 million third baseman Pablo Sandoval had taken his Panda nickname a tad too seriously and ended up on the DL carrying a wide-load sign.

Although Cherington has been gone since last August, his legacy of ineptitude has lived on in Castillo, Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez, the latter two long ago dubbed The Gold Bust Twins.

Tottering shakily on that list as well has been pitcher Rick Porcello, who was acquired last season in a trade from the man he now works for, Cherington’s replacement Dave Dombrowski. So somewhere Cherington had to be smiling just a little when he heard what went on at Fenway Park last night against the hard-hitting Toronto Blue Jays.

Six days ago, Porcello gave up two home runs to Jose Bautista along with seven hits and four earned runs in six shaky innings of what became an 8-4 victory in Toronto.

It was far different last night, when at least until the seventh inning Porcello pitched like the $82.5 million pitcher Cherington made him before he left (not to mention before Porcello had done a damn thing to earn it).

Through six innings, Porcello was throwing a masterful one-hitter, even though that hit was a home run belted to left by Edwin Encarnación. He had seven strikeouts and at one point retired 13 consecutive batters. Clearly, he was in command of his fastball, his sinker and the Jays.

That ride got a little bumpy in the seventh, however, when Porcello allowed a two-run bomb to Encarnación that cut the Sox’s lead to 5-3 and made nervous Sox’ fans gulp, worrying that they’d seen this before.

Not wanting things to end on a downer, manager John Farrell left Porcello in for one more batter and he fanned Troy Tulowitzki, his eighth strikeout of the evening and the end of his night’s work. If Porcello pitches like that the rest of the season, he will have earned his considerable salary, Cherington will have gotten something out of all John Henry’s money he squandered and the Red Sox’ pitching will be in far better shape than it has seemed lately.

Going into last night’s 5-3 win, Sox starters had only two quality starts (which as a statistic plays pretty fast and loose with the word “quality” in the first place). They also had the highest collective ERA (6.86) among starters in the AL. Only one Sox starter, Steven Wright, had gotten a single out in the seventh inning or later. Obviously this is a group that could use some improvement and last night, at least, Porcello provided it.

Whether he can do it consistently remains to be seen and skeptics abound (probably including Dombrowski), but no one could quarrel with his production on a chilly evening in which he kept the powerful Jays’ lineup on ice until one bad pitch to a very bad man in the seventh inning made things a little nerve wracking.

“I’d like to finish that game out a little better than I did tonight,” said Porcello (2-0). “I didn’t command my fastball the first time (against the Jays). That certainly was a priority tonight. We were mixing the ball around. My sinker was working well (too). I felt good.”

So did those watching him, which frankly hasn’t often been the case since he arrived on the Sox. But last night, Porcello reminded the announced crowd of 31,415 what he’s capable of. More importantly, perhaps, he reminded manager John Farrell too.

“He did a really nice job throwing his fastball to both sides of the plate,” Farrell said. “And he used enough of his secondary pitches to set up his fastball.”

He also used the help of catcher Christian Vazquez, who returned to the lineup for the first time since Tommy John surgery laid him low last April. Vazquez picked Tulowitzki off first in a 2-3 double play that started with Porcello striking out Michael Saunders swinging, thus ending the second inning that began with Encarnación’s first homer of the night.

“Christian (knows) the right buttons to push to get the best out of (Porcello),” Farrell said.

Porcello agreed, speaking enthusiastically about how young Vazquez framed his pitches and appeared to steal him several close-call strikes. While that was true, Porcello was throwing the kind of pitches that could be framed. The kind that hit the black and can reduce even a power hitting lineup like Toronto’s to a frustrated aggregation of guys looking for a mistake Porcello refused to make against every Jay but Encarnación.

“He was attacking the zone,” Vazquez said of Porcello. “His sinker was moving a lot. They got a couple bombs but it was a great night for him.”

And a good one for Ben Cherington, where ever he is, too.