I know Fox likes to come up with relevant songs to play during the game, but don't they know not to play "Dirty Water" until the game is over? Did everyone catch this? Is this the talk of the internet or was I the only one who noticed that they played it after we took the lead in the sixth...only to see our run-scoring stop right there for the night? Terrible job, Fox. And they, like TBS in the ALDS, used "Shipping up to Boston" for their intro song to the entire series. Kind of unfair to the Angels and Dragons if you ask me. Why don't they just play "Heart of Rock 'n' Roll" after every inning of every game? That would cover a lot of ground.

Another complaint about the "ball in flight" shot: On Coco's ball deep to right. No one watching had any idea where the ball was going. (Read that sentence and realize that it's a very important game, and the only one the network is showing that day.) It's not like missing a snap-throw to first by the pitcher, although they shouldn't be missing anything. This is a deep fly ball in a key situation. Don't show me a closeup of the ball against the sky. I might as well just hold a ball in my hand and stare at it. It would tell me about as much about how deep the ball at Fenway is. If you want to do the "look at this majestic fly ball" thing, you know, since the whole point of televising baseball is the Emmy Awards, just have one camera do it, and show us that angle on a replay, after we've seen what happened. When you show us that angle on the play, though, since we can't see the fielders, we are left to guess--is it thirty rows back into the crowd? Is it shy of the track? We can guess, but this isn't three card monte, it's the playoffs. Some of us care a lot about it.

Turns out Coco's ball was caught, despite that they completely fooled us into thinking it could only be a homer. Right when they set up to show a replay from a different angle, I said, Watch, I bet this camera shows just the ball, too. And it did. We never saw the fielder drifting back for the ball, which probably would've told us right away that he had a bead on it, as Castiglione (referred to as "Castillione" by McCarver) would say. If I want to be told that every ball hit in the air is a home run, I'd have your average fan at a game announce the game for me, and they can go, "Oh!" on what turns out to be a pop-up to second. Or, a foul ball back over the roof.

Remember how my biggest fear was Lugo doing "in his own world" stuff once the playoffs rolled around? Did you see? The play where he could've easily gotten the third out at second on the force, but looked at third first, costing him the out? That's a play where, as soon as the ball's hit, I'm thinking, "second base." Alex Gonzalez would've gotten it there before my two-word thought was complete. I just hope we can make it through seven more wins without him making any gaffes like that that cost us. In this case, I think we got out of the inning unscathed, but that's one more batter we had to face, bringing up the eventual go-ahead run up one spot earlier, i.e., it affected the game down the line, though we'll never know what would've happened if he'd made the play.

On the play where Papi didn't hustle out of the box once he saw the ball going right at a fielder. Were you like me? Did you know before you saw the replay that that's what happened? If you've been paying attention all year, you should have. I brought it up earlier in the year, and was told I was wrong, but I'm right and it can easily be proven. Papi doesn't always run hard to first. Sometimes, he doesn't even make it there. I'm fine with giving him the benefit of the doubt--that his knee is in bad shape and it's more important that he make it through the season. But it's the playoffs. A key game. Tied. Run to first, hard, please. All he had to do was think back to the sixth, when he beat out that potential double play! That's how Papi should be all the time! As soon as that happened, I, and I'm sure you, said, That could be key. And it was, as Manny tied it up right then. I really love Papi and I'd almost rather nobody noticed he doesn't run out balls, because I don't want to see him ridiculed by dumb shits like dirtdogs, but he really does have a problem with that, for whatever reason, and I hope next year, after his surgery, we never see him trot slowly to first again.

Eric Gagne. Just now, just to the left of these words, should be the last time I ever type those words. What gets me is, as we're sitting there wondering who'll be coming in for the eleventh, we're thinking, Okay, if it's not Lester, that must mean they want to save him in case he needs to start a game soon, or come in as Wake's "backup" long man. And we're also thinking, as we see Gagne coming in (terrible job by Fox for providing us no clue whether he had warmed up or not), Why not Lopez? Then, after Gagne does his usual, we see both other pitchers warming up. So, if they were both available, how was it that Gagne somehow was ahead of them on the list?? Anyway, they all shit the bed as it it turned out, but, seriously, can we stop with the Gagne now? For good? It was like we gave up the game. You know me. I'm an optimist. But with Gagne on the mound, and hearing the words, "Trot Nixon is on deck," I was already writing the blog entry in my head. Our team (minus Gagne) had taken us as far as they could. Now, we've surrendered. And I loved that Trot was coming up, because, Hey, as long as we've lost anyway, at least all the people who inexplicably defend J. D. Drew can see once and for all that they were dead wrong. Again, congratulations, Trot. If we don't go to the World Series because we were one Trot Nixon game-winning hit away, in a year where THERE WAS A TROT NIXON GAME-WINNING HIT, I'm gonna do that thing where I claim I'm boycotting the Red Sox next year (but then won't because we die-hards are weak motherfuckers who always come crawling back).

On to Cleveland. One win out of three means we get to come home. But let's just get three* and not worry about that.

*meaning "three wins out of three," not "game three." Sorry for the confusion.