BOSTON — Having swung and missed at a second straight Felix Doubront fastball, Miguel Cabrera lingered a moment in the batter’s box. He seemingly couldn’t conceive of how his bat missed the ball. He couldn’t believe it had tailed all the way to the edge of the plate.

He still couldn’t figure it out two pitches later, when Doubront put him away with the third of the at-bat’s three swinging strikes – nor could he at any point on a sunny Memorial Day afternoon at Fenway Park. Despite arriving with a .394 average and .998 on-base plus slugging since May 10, and having racked up a monstrous .982 OPS against lefties in his career, Cabrera managed only a lazy fly ball between two swinging strikeouts en route to an 0-for-3 against the Red Sox southpaw.

In other words, Doubront made the American League’s best hitter look like one of the rest. And lately the rest haven’t had much success against Doubront, either.

“I didn’t show fear,” Doubront said of dominating Cabrera. “I just threw the ball and made him swing the bat. That’s very important: Throw the ball with conviction.”

Conviction, confidence and command were all on display Monday for Doubront, who pitched the Sox to a 7-4 win by allowing two runs over his six innings of work, and in improving to 5-1 on the season delivered more evidence that the 24-year-old has progressed from a back-end candidate for a spot in the starting rotation to a key member of Boston’s pitching staff.

In posting a 3.86 earned run average through his first 10 starts of the season, and graduating from the typical expectations of a fourth or fifth starter, Doubront has at times been dominant. Cabrera can attest to that now, as can the 15 swings and misses Doubront generated with 95 pitches Monday, and the 59 strikeouts he’s notched in just 56 innings.

But perhaps just as impressive has been his consistency. His latest effort signified the sixth quality start in his last eight outings, and the fourth consecutive start in which he’s limited his opponent to two runs or fewer. The two scores he allowed Monday were the product of a pair of solo homers, but Doubront avoided trouble by allowing multiple baserunners in only one inning, and routinely working ahead of hitters.

“I didn’t expect this kind of consistency,” said Sox manager Bobby Valentine. “Felix has been a pretty consistent pitcher for us. When he has his fastball command, and that two-seamer on the outside to right-handers and inside to left-handers, he gets ahead in a lot of counts and he seems like he does a pretty good job.”

Doubront said Monday might’ve been his best start of the year, saying he threw his fastball where he wanted to, and his offspeed stuff was effective. Valentine was also impressed by Doubront’s ability to respond after Delmon Young and Gerald Laird both took him deep. Each came on a two-strike pitch, but the lefty didn’t let his misses bother him. Instead, he accepted his penance and moved on to the next pitch.

“He came right back,” Valentine said. “A lot of times he’ll miss with some pitches, and he seems to have the reset button well within his reach. Everyone can learn from that.”

Doubront himself said he’s learning with each start, and if his progression continues, this could ultimately prove to be just the beginning. He’s young, he’s left-handed, he’s big (6-foot-2), he throws hard (hitting 95 on Monday), and he has five pitches. In baseball, those are valuable commodities — and Doubront is starting to show he’s capable of using them.

Just ask Cabrera.

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Dustin Pedroia left the game with what Valentine initially said was a sprained thumb, but later clarified that he’d yet to receive a diagnosis, and until test results are returned the second baseman’s right thumb should be considered jammed.

The manager said he wouldn’t bet on Pedroia returning to the lineup tonight against the Tigers and Justin Verlander – but his players were more optimistic. “Pretty sure he’s going to be in there,” shortstop Mike Aviles said. “There’s not many people that can stop him from getting into the lineup.”

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Last week, Kelly Shoppach went into Valentine’s office and asked why he wasn’t playing. Every day, Jarrod Saltalamacchia seems to be answering that question.

The Sox’ starting catcher crunched his fifth homer in 13 games on Sunday, then lined a single inside the first-base bag, giving him a 2-for-4 afternoon that improved his batting average to .296 for the month and his on-base plus slugging to .944 since the start of May. His overall numbers rank him among baseball’s most productive players at his position, and he’s currently on pace for 30 homers and 74 runs batted in this season.

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The Sox celebrated Trot Nixon’s 2003 ALDS walk-off homer before the game as part of Memorable Moments Month at Fenway. Now 38, and four years removed from his final games as a player, the right fielder on Boston’s 2004 championship team has done some work speaking to prospects for the Cleveland Indians, and would like to get back into the game someday.

For now, though, he’s happy to be coaching his 7- and 10-year-old sons in baseball and football in North Carolina – and true to the player Red Sox fans remember, that’s not a responsibility he takes lightly.

“I stay active on a field, pretty much,” Nixon said. “Sometimes I feel like that’s where I need to be; sometimes I need to take a step away from it because I’m a little too passionate about it at times.”

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When David Ortiz’ first-inning double caromed away from Andy Dirks off the left-field wall, Adrian Gonzalez motored all the way around to score from first base. As one of the slowest players in baseball, that was something of a feat for Gonzalez – but not as rare a feat as it may seem. It was the 12th time Gonzalez has scored from first on a double in the 32 chances he’s had to do so with the Red Sox. That equates to 37.5 percent. By comparison, Pedroia has scored on 10 of 27 chances, or 37 percent.

Dave D’Onofrio covers the Red Sox for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. His e-mail address is ddonof13@gmail.com.