Don! It's August! Some of us are still trying to win the division, and aren't worried about the Texas Rangers, other than rooting for them to beat the goddamn Yankees this week. NESN seems to be insulting us by completely ignoring the division race. If you needed any more proof that the wild card ruins pennant races, it's seeing the Red Sox channel rooting FOR the Yankees with a month of summer left.

Great win tonight. We almost had the exact opposite experience as last night, when the other Sox lost their shit and gave us the game. Tonight, it was a run scoring on a strikeout with two outs, and then a ball off Lowell's glove, to give up the tie and the lead. Then Okajima has a pop-up land right behind him. (Despite what Remy--and Tito afterwards--said, Youk should have taken charge and caught the ball--dumb as it is, pitchers are told to get the hell out of the way. The only thing Oka did wrong was staying near the mound instead of clearing the area, which would have made the other infielders realize they had to be the ones to catch the ball.) Now, did anyone see what Vik-E Mart did on that pop-up? He reached back for a new ball from the ump! He thought that ball went behind him. So there was one more guy who should have been in charge doing nothing. Then he throws the ball into center field. Fortunately we got out of that and then Bay got the big dong and then we pulled away. And Victor got two key hits to make up for his weird defensive play.

Oh my god. Now, on the postgame, TC is acting like we're all mad that Texas is winning. Hello??!!! August 25th, fuckers! We're closing the lead to 6! Tell me SOME of you out there still "believe" and have "faith" like all your T-shirts say! I, for one, am overjoyed that Joba shat the bed tonight. Don't worry, though, they'll come up with some stat that makes him appear to be awesome. Like, "in games in which he's given up less than three runs, he's never given up more than TWO RUNS!" It's the same with Mo. It's as if they only count his save situations. And even when he's totally shaky but gets the job done, it's just "he's the greatest," whereas when Pap is shaky but gets it done, it's "hey, remember when Pap was good?" I still fully trust Papelbon, and I can't figure out why people are so down on the guy....

After Bay's homer, Remy said there was no question about it when it left the bat. Which was funny because Don's call of the dong was "does it have enough?"

Hey person behind home plate on the strikeout which scored a run. You can stop clapping. Something BAD is happening. Please give up your 200-dollar seat to someone who knows what's going on.

After hearing Craig Carton (Rhode Island is great because I get NY and Boston sports radio in my non-satellite-radio-havin' car) sing Billy Don't Be A Hero and The Night Chicago Died this morning, I had them in my head, but they left...until I heard about Billy Wagner. Then they were gone again....until NESN played a bad version of that Chicago song after tonight's game.

Ellsbury--the all-time Red Sox single season stolen sase seader! Sice Sob, Sacoby.


Heidi: So what's your deal, Ernie Boch?

Ernie Boch: Go to this web site, here's the address, here it is again, and again.

Heidi: So you're taking donations through the web site?


On final thing from last night, and I don't know why I'm still thinking about this. But remember when their second baseman made a play to his left, spun, and threw to first, but the throw was off target and got by the first baseman? That was a classc case of overcompensation. On that play, all your momentum is going to your left as you're spinning that way, so when you throw, you have to aim it to the right of the target, or it will go way to the left of it. That guy did the right thing, but he overcompensated, so the throw stayed too far to the right of the first baseman, from the second baseman's perspective. Yet Remy, a former second baseman, said nothing! I really thought he should have explained that to the type of viewers who, say, clap on missed third strikes not knowing the runner can go to first as long as there are two outs or first base is open. Go out into an open field, spin to your left, and try to throw something at a target while you're spinning, and you'll see what I mean.

Note: While writing this post, it was 10-5 Rangers in the ninth. But Francisco Franco is still dead, and he's trying to give it up. 10-6, bases loaded. Oh, the TYR (typical Yankee rally) continues, as they add a soft infield single to their two walks, and it's now 10-7, still no outs. I bet the empty blue chairs with cupholders are loving this....

And now it's 10-9, still no outs. This is all happening very fast. I guess I'll update down here and post this now.

10:59: Texas finally gets an out. And NESN continues with this wild card race crap by playing a montage complete with dramatic horror-movie music. I see it now. They're going for the "hey, casual viewer, look at this really close race! Telling people we're 7 back doesn't get ratings/viewers. I guess you people will have to follow independent bloggers for real Red Sox coverage...

Oh! Double play ends it! Hahahahha. The ultimate Yanks "almost win but still lose"! Sorry to disappoint you, people accidentally rooting for Yankees!

And NESN STILL doesn't show the division race, even though we gained a game and closed it to 6 with six weeks left! Come on!