It was a little touch and/or go there early, us down 3-0 and Fox telling us how many thousands of innings it's been since we scored a run, but we put up an 8-spot in the 4th and cruised to the 12-7 win. Nuyorican Mike Aviles had the go-ahead single, and then Crawford followed it with a grand slam to put us up for good. We remain a half game out of first.

Thingz & Stuffs:

The Rangers pitched a guy a named Hamburger. I was happy to see Allan post some of our jokes about the name from the game thread on his game story at Joy of Sox. He also noticed the bullpen cop giving the HR signal on Crawford grand dong well before the ball reached the stands. High-larious.

Tim McCarver saw the wave and was surprised, saying you don't see it at Fenway. People, I go to 20 games a year at Fenway, and there's at least one wave at an average of 19.5 of them. But even if you watch on TV, you know it happens just about every game. Tim is a guy who witnesses games at Fenway Park quite a bit, and usually for wave-friendly day games. I guess he's just in the bathroom for those few minutes every time. Oh wait, maybe it's just because he has a very, very unreliable memory.

Did you see the foul ball that hit the vendor's empty diet Coke tray he was holding over his head? Dick and Tim did, but they only seemed to notice that some other guy caught it on the ricochet. The ball landed right in the tray! Granted, it bounced out, but to me, that was the impressive play. Of course somebody's gonna catch it on the easy bounce out of the tray. But no mention of the vendor.

Early in the game, there was a play where the Texas first baseman went over to the fence for a foul pop, and Stockton's call was "...and it's out of play." The guy then proceeded to come back away from the fence and catch the ball for the out. Stockton's attempt at a recovery was to say it was a "great catch." I guess he figured that since he was looking 20 rows back for the ball and the fielder ended up with it, it must have been a great catch.

Pedroia hit a 3-run double. Stockton's call: "and the Red Sox lead ten to three....eleven to three!" So he corrected himself quickly, I have to give him credit for that. Except...the score was twelve to three! He did finally note that three runs did indeed score, but did not actually say "twelve to three," probably because it's embarrassing to take three shots at the score of the game you're calling even if you know the third one is right.

I am a fan of Dick Stockton. The guy announced the Sox for years, and called the '75 World Series for NBC. But at some point you gotta pass the torch. (And would it be too much to ask to light McCarver on fire as long as you're holding a torch?)

One last thing: Remember the play where Adrian caught the bunt while running in toward home on the failed squeeze attempt? He was so close to home, and so was the runner, that AG just decided to tag the guy instead of risking a wild throw to third. The guy had already stepped on the plate, then started to retreat, did a little juke move to try to avoid the tag, but Adrian got it on him while laughing at the dance. But here's what's interesting. Let's say the juke move worked, and he got away from the tag and was running back toward third. Adrian still has the easy out, just by tossing the ball to third where Youk touches the bag to officially double the runner off. But--let's say he does throw wild and the guy gets back to third. (And if you want to take the fantasy further, then has enough to time run home again to score a run, kind of a crazy-ass "sacrifice fly.") The point is, the guy had touched home when he initially came from third with the pitch but didn't retouch it on the way back to third. So he still would be out, provided the Red Sox appealed before the next pitch. Isn't that weird? You rarely see a situation where a guy would need to retouch home. And the appeal throw would also go home. I guess I think it's odd because when you pass any other base, you're still in the baseline. When you pass home, you can go wherever the hell you want. You could be all the way to the edge of the dugout, realize you need to get back to third base, and you'd have to run from the dugout to home to third. I'd like to find out if this has ever happened. Example: Fly ball to the right field corner with one out. Guy on third thinks there are two outs, runs through home, sees the catch, and, somehow not hearing the shouts of his teammates, takes off his helmet and walks toward the outfield (assuming a teammate will bring him his hat and glove for the next inning). He finally realizes there was only one out, and the fielder has crashed into the wall and is lying there unconscious. Now the runner has to run that crazy path to third via home plate amidst chaos. He also has a chance of then racing for home again after he's retouched home and tagged up at third. I gotta figure the same rule applies to all the bases, but maybe once you're past home you're considered outside the basepaths. Like how if you get to the end of a level in Super Mario Brothers, sure, you're still alive, but you no longer have access to the stuff on that level. If the fielders don't do anything about it, your run counts, but if they are scrambling to throw to third to double you off, you're screwed because you've already pulled down that flag (at a time ending in 1, 3, or 6 if you want the extra points from those fireworks) and entered the castle. Hmmmm, no, probably not. It's probably like any other base.

Okay, that may have been a long paragraph, but look at what the mlb.com article said about it:

On the third pitch, Gentry went squeeze again, but first baseman Adrian Gonzalez snuffed it out by catching it in the air. Torrealba had no chance to retreat back to third in time and was tagged out by Gonzalez.

Where's the explantion? The fantasy? The passion? The Mario? This guy has you wondering how a first baseman could tag a runner who was on third!