BOSTON — It’s not only big hits by the big guys — in this case, Big Papi and Manny — that win games (Red Sox 7, Blue Jays 4, last night at Fenway).

It’s also the little things, done by the little guys.

So let’s have a tip of the cap for smallish second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who’s listed at 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds in the Red Sox media guide, but certainly isn’t that tall, and probably isn’t that heavy, either.

He does, however, play big — both at the plate, and in the field. And last night, as he has done so often over the past two months, after shaking off a frustratingly slow start, he once again came up big — both at the plate, and in the field.

Consider what Pedroia did in the first inning alone.

Toronto already had jumped on Boston starter Tim Wakefield for one run and appeared to have a second on the way when Troy Glaus slapped a sharp grounder just to the right of second base, seemingly headed on its way into center field.

Until, that is, Pedroia dove to his right, backhanded the ball, then popped quickly to his feet and threw out Glaus by several steps, making a difficult play look relatively easy.

It was a case of Pedroia picking up where he left off, having made outstanding defensive plays in each of Boston’s last two games before the All-Star break, even though the Sox lost both in Detroit.

“We’ve seen him do that a lot,” manager Terry Francona said. “He’s worked really hard on his defense. He’s a lot better player defensively than he was last September.”

“He’s one of the best second basemen in the game,” right fielder J.D. Drew said of Pedroia. “He has good hands and good range.”

Pedroia has worked hard to improve his offense, too.

Batting second in the bottom of the first inning, he came to the plate against Toronto ace Roy Halladay with Drew already on first following a leadoff single. Pedroia proceeded to wear out Halladay, who simply couldn’t throw a pitch past him. Although Halladay managed to get two strikes on Pedroia, he never was able to get a third, as Pedroia fouled off four pitches before finally drawing a base on balls on the 10th pitch of a truly tenacious at-bat.

“That was a great at-bat,” Drew said. “He fouled off a lot of pitches and really made Halladay work.”

“I’d faced Halladay maybe 10 times before ,” said Pedroia, who actually was 0-for-9 against the 2003 Cy Young award winner heading into last night’s game, “and hadn’t had much success against him.

“He’s tough. It’s always a battle. When he got two strikes on me, that’s what I was doing — battling. I was just trying to get on base.”

When he did, Ortiz and Ramirez followed with a single and a double, respectively, the Red Sox went on to score four runs in the inning, and led the rest of the way.

Not that they cruised to what was their ninth win in their last 11 games at Fenway.

The Blue Jays closed to 5-4 on back-to-back homers by Matt Stairs and Alex Rios off Wakefield starting off the sixth inning, so the Sox were seeking some insurance runs when Pedroia came to the plate with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of that inning.

Once again, he refused to go quietly after getting two strikes. Facing Brian Tallet, who had come on in relief of Halladay (112 pitches through five innings), Pedroia again proved a tough out, fouling off three pitches before directing a plate-protecting tapper to the right side, just beyond Tallet’s reach.

When Toronto second baseman Aaron Hill threw wide on an off-balance toss to first after charging in to pick up the slow roller, Pedroia had his first base hit of the night.

After which, Ortiz (run-scoring double) and Ramirez (RBI single) came through again.

The big bats never would have gotten to the plate, however, had Pedroia not battled Tallet, just as he did in the first inning, when he worked Halladay for that 10-pitch walk.

Pedroia has been torrid at the plate the past two months after a horrible start.

Batting a lowly .172 (10 for 58) heading into a May 3 game at Seattle, Pedroia has hit .362 (68 for 188) since then, raising his average to .317 — the second-best average among major-league rookies, behind only Houston’s Hunter Pence (.342.)

With one hit in four at-bats last night, he now has hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games. He also has shown some “pop” at the plate, with 21 doubles (the same number as Manny), 3 homers, and 25 RBI.

“He’s a good ballplayer,” said first baseman Kevin Youkilis. “He’s a good hitter and a good defender. He’s scrappy. He’s gonna dive and make some plays.”

Big plays. Even though he’s not a big guy.

jdonalds@projo.com