Well, at least this game didn't happen with us one game out with three to play or something.

First we went ahead 6-0.
Then the Angels scored 8 in one inning to put us down 8-6.
Then we went ahead 9-8.
Then they tied it at 9.
Then we went up 11-9. (And were one strike away from the win.)
Then we went down 12-11.
Then we tied it at 12 in the bottom of the 9th on a Ross dong.
Then we went down 14-12.
Then we cut it to 14-13 with a run in the 10th, and left the tying run on base.

We've seen some unbelievable games the last two years, but we may have yet another champion.

The umps did help the Angels though, with two blown calls. With the game tied in the 8th and one out, Aviles beat out a roller off the pitcher's glove to the second baseman. Ump called him out though. That made it 2 outs, 0 on. The next four guys would single, seemingly putting the game away at 11-9. But had the rally started a batter earlier, it could have been a much bigger inning, which it turns out we needed.

Then in the 9th, Aceves got the first out, then gave up a fly ball that hit the front edge of the top of the Green Monster and bounced up in the air, landing way back on the field. For some reason, this was called a home run. And there was no review. On a border home run in the 9th inning. Incredibly, not one person wearing a Red Sox uniform argued. I'm not sure how the umpires do it, but I would think that on any border call, if any of the four have any doubt, they'd review it whether there's an argument or not. But if it's as simple as "if anybody ever argues a border call, even if it's just to say 'hey--we'd like a review'," then holy shit how did we not do that? Didn't anybody think that it might not be a homer? Or shouldn't at least one person have said, "Know what, I'm gonna go argue if only to get the play reviewed just in case"? Of course, had the ump made the correct call, we wouldn't have to ask these questions.* (And note that Don had a classic gaffe call: "The Angels aren't arguing." No shit, Don!) That cut the lead to 1, and the Angels would end up scoring 2 more in the 9th to stay alive and take the lead. We then tied it but lost in extras.

A few random things: Do Don and Jerry follow baseball at all? Don noted incredulously that if the season ended today, the A's would be one of the wild card teams. Jerry followed with an "Isn't that something". Do they know that the A's have been within a game or so of a playoff spot for more than a month? They've been in the first or second wild card spot for about 20 days since mid-July. Yet Don acted like today is the day they finally reached playoff-level. This also came while describing the Rays-A's game, whose main story should have been how the Rays were about to close to 2.5 games of the Yankees' A.L. East lead, which had been 10 games last month.

There was a ball hit mere feet to the right of dead center field, and Don called it right field. Got a chuckle out of that one.

Great moment when Cody tied it in the bottom of the ninth with a dong. I called it over at the Joy of Sox board. I saw that they brought in that dude whose name sounds like Fieri, so I said "Drive-Ins, Diners, and Dongs," and immediately Ross tied it up. Too bad we couldn't get one more effing run.... It was redemption for Ross letting the ball go right by him on a bloop hit in the top of the 9th with two outs. It put the tying run at second, and he'd score on an incredibly close play at the plate that would have ended the game. Man, I just keep thinking of more and more insanity in this game....


*I feel like we've had this situation happen before, a ball hitting the red line or the ledge just on top of the line, and because of the dented and not-flat ledge, the ball actually bounced back toward the field (without hitting the vertical back part of the ledge. If that happens, it IS a dong, but that's nearly impossible. You'd have to hit it waaay up in the air, then have it hit a dent on the horizontal surface and go back in the direction it came from. This wasn't that--it hit right at the top front corner and bounced back toward the field. No dong. (Unless, again, it hit entirely on the horizontal surface but somehow bounced back instead of forward toward the seats.)