For "whichever team's playing the Red Sox"! Like I said last year, this team has found some incredible ways to lose games. When you go to the park, you never know what brand-new way the Red Sox will find to lose. If we'd won half the bizarre games we've lost in the last two years, it would be the most magical run in baseball history. Instead, it's "other team magic" that keeps getting the best of us.

So today we had Buchholz pitching for excrement again. But "Brooks was here"--Middlebrooks hit a game-tying grand slam when things were looking bleak. Then after Salty dropped a foul pop (the batter then got on base on a ball off Padilla's glove, so he actually hit two fielders' gloves in one at bat but still reached) and threw a ball into center leading to the O's taking the lead, he atoned and tied it at 6 in the 8th.

And then nine innings of baseball were played. Both teams had plenty of chances to score but no one did. I finally had to leave for a show at 7:00. The game started at 1:30. We heard Pedroia make a great catch in the 16th in the car. Then the O's brought in a position player, but we couldn't score. As we looked for parking, Byrd tried to score the winning run from first on a double, and you could tell by Castiglione's voice that he just wasn't gonna make it. Tossed out at the plate. Then we parked, and when we got inside the place, I checked Kim's phone, and it was 9-6 O's in the 17th. Now Darnell McDonald was on the mound, and he gets out of it with no more runs allowed. But we were still facing their position player, so anything could happen. And it almost did, but still didn't. We got the first two guys on, but then Adrian struck out to go 0 for 8 in the game. A double play ball ended it. 9-6 loss in 17. Now we go on the road. At least we win games away from Fenway! And it's KC, where they can't win at home either. All signs point to us sweeping.... Or the Royals pinch-hitting with an elephant who hits the game-winning home run off Marlon Byrd's head to cap off a 25-run rally bookended by perfect games by an unknown minor leaguer and a washed-up journeyman, or something.