Finally some fun. It started off like the first two games, with the Yanks putting up multiple runs in the first. But Doubront settled down, and by the 6th, we'd turned 3-0 into 3-2 (thanks in part to Darnell getting in Granderson's way on a routine fly ball). Then it got good. With a man on first and no outs, Jeter did what he does best: misses a grounder. (Unless you're a Yankee announcer, in which case, it was the first error of his career.) Then with the bases loaded and one out, Ciriaco comes up and grounds one into the left fielder corner. Three runs score! And we're up 5-3. We loaded the bases after that, but couldn't add to the lead in that inning.

Jones started the 7th with a dong, so we were only up one. Albers came in and kept the lead right there. And in the bottom half, we broke it open. AG, Sweeney, Gomez, and Ciriaco all had extra base hits, making it 8-4 non-douches. Ciriaco then stole third, and scored when the throw got away, leading the crowd to go nuts for the guy. What a day for him. 3 for 5, 3 RBI, 2 runs. I loved him in spring training, good to see he got a shot and kicked Yankee butt in said shot. Gomez was 3-4, AG 3-5, Punto 2-3, Ortiz 2-4. Final: Sox 9, Yanks 5. We outhit them 16-6, and they made 4 errors.

Gotta keep this going Sunday night so we can feel good going into the 4-day break.

Idiocy from Fox: The first line of their opening intro was "The CURSE may be over..." Does it even matter what they said after that. Then Joe Buck topped that, by starting his intro with "New York's weekend visit to Boston has been a blast...literally." You'd think Buck would be one of the people making fun of how America forgot the meaning of the word literally. Guess he's actually on the other side.

Fox also completely ignored a near death in the crowd. High pop-up near first, guy reaches out with cupped hands, right over a little girl's head. He misses the ball, but it hits off his hands and flies away--I honestly think he saved that girl's life. Or at least a concussion. She didn't fully escape unscathed, as he proceeded to land on her, but that's better than the alternative. After I saw the play live, from the looks of the people around her, I thought it was something really bad. But watching again I know she avoided the worst. What a scary moment that must have been for the kid.

We all know Robinson Cano is a nonchalant douche. Today he took it to the next level. He swung and hit a hard grounder to the right side. He immediately noticed it was right at the second baseman. So he stood there. It's one thing to hit a lazy fly ball and just drop your head and start trotting (which he also did today). It's another to just stand there first, drop your head, and then reluctantly start trotting to first. Ciriaco got the ball and took his sweet time, as Cano never even entered the picture. You can get benched for that shit. Fucking Jeter told McDonald he had to cut his hair*. Maybe he should tell Cano he has to run when he hits the fucking ball. But we all know the Yanks aren't about class--just the appearance of class. And they fail at that miserably too.

*We knew going in he'd have to follow the robotic rules, but he could have kept the dreads and just left them short. But Jeter, as the story goes, told him he had to cut them completely. (That wasn't the moment I lost all respect for Darnell. It was when he said "Mr. Cashman.") Maybe with that clean-cut look, he too can cheat on his taxes, womanize, pretend he got hit by a pitch when he didn't, sell calls to the ump when he knows the guy was safe, and come up with new ways to get a cheap-ass hit every goddamn time he comes to the plate.

On to the game. We gave up a big number in the 1st AGAIN. But it didn't really matter because we couldn't do anything against Freddy Garcia, especially with our less-than-major league lineup thanks to a shitload of injuries. We lose 6-1.

And I was just thinking how it really stinks that the team goes and loses 5 in a row leading up to my big anti-media campaign, and how the focus is just on the team playing poorly. But then I hear Tom Caron after the game use the term "full-out panic in the streets of Boston" and I remember why we're doing this. You know how many teams would love to be 4 games out of a playoff spot in July? Imagine what the media would do if the Red Sox ever really did have a bad team?

My mom was there last night with her anti-meida sign and says she got lots of positive remarks. And that a photog ran up from the warning track and took a picture of it. She also held it up behind Rice and P. Abe in pre-game on Yawkey Way, and Rice grinned ear-to-ear as she gave him the thumbs up, while Abe glared.

So bring your signs tonight and tomorrow night! Thanks to Toeing the Rubber, FenwayFanatics, and Universal Hub for linking to my post, too!

Other stuff:

Zack Hample has updated his catching-balls-dropped-from-a-helicopter post since I last told you about it. You'll notice that the Spinners' dugout is rife with old Red Sox logos. But how can I expect the affiliates to know about the change if the parent club can't even figure it out?

I also noticed today that the band that plays on Yawkey Way has the old logo on its bass drum head. I guarantee any and all Marlins bands use their new logo.

And the Herald still goes with the old as we know, but now I've noticed they don't only do it in their Red Sox coverage logo, but in every single box score, too.

Beckett gives up 5 in the first. We get them all back in the same inning. He leaves with a 7-6 lead. But our 'pen, which has been the best in baseball for a long time, ends up giving up 4 runs in the 7th. We lose 10-8. (AG grounding out with the tying runs on base in the 8th was extra-rough.)

It should be noted that in that 7th-inning rally, there was an ERROR by Aviles that could have been a double play but definitely should have been one out minimum. The horse-fucker Teixeira hit a triple after that--could have been a bases-empty hit, instead it's the game-winning RBI. (The scorer gave a hit on the Aviles ERROR, but as we know, everything's a hit these days. The scorers don't want to take hits away from the home hitters, and don't want to give errors to the home fielders. It has to be egregious to be called an error in 2012--but I see even those, and the H still goes up on the board. It really pisses me off.)

So that stinks. We turn a potential blow-out against us into a lead, and then put in in the bullpen's hands, but we lose. As for anti-media signs, I didn't see any, but like I said I didn't expect NESN would show any. (I know my mom had hers though!) The Fox and ESPN games are the key ones. And Universal Hub linked my post!

Some notes from the broadcast:

A few times I saw the lineup card behind Girardi on the dugout wall. Guess what? Old logo. The Red Sox print these out and give them to the visitors. And they don't know that their own team tweaked its logo in 2008.

Don is just losing it! Said Ross bobbled a ball in right that he absolutely fielded cleanly. Said this was the fourth game against the Yanks this year, it was the third. (He was doing this while mentioning the huge ERA our 'pen has against the Yanks compared to vs. others--uh, hello, that's because of the 9-0 blown game. Very small sample size, affected by one really bad game. Pretty meaningless.) When the Yanks got that 4th run in the 7th, Don went into his out call: "annnd, ON THE RUN...." That would end with "is Nava to make the catch," but at that point he noticed he wasn't going to catch it, and changed to "is Nava but can't get there." Similar deal on the ball into the Triangle--he broke into the HR call: "and it iiiis...." not gone, not gone at all. But the one that ticked me off the most was when he said "what a play" on a Jeter play that was nice, but not "what a play"-worthy. He gave him "what a play" because he's Jeter, simple as that.

We got a little gift, as NESN switched to the "classic" CF cam for a few pitches late in the game. Don't know why but I'll take it. (At one point they went back to the head-on robot cam, but it was zoomed way out. Maybe ol' HAL is starting to make his own decisions.)

Why does NESN continue to show FAKE, NON-LIVE scenes of Boston during the game, trying to pass them off as live shots?? I proved this without a doubt in an earlier game (shadows DO NOT lie), and since then, I've noticed they do it all the time. It's not like they have a "live" icon on the screen, but when they come back from break showing the city at night from the blimp (when there isn't even a blimp at the game--there's another dead giveaway), and Don says "beautiful night in Boston as we go to the 6th," that's an obvious deception of the audience. Tonight on one of the mid-game shots, you could see a bunch of people on the warning track. I thought, Oh, maybe this is from the Ortiz 400 presentation--but Kim pointed out that that took place in the light, and the shot we were seeing was in the dark. So the shot clearly was from a different night. Going to the bottom of the 7th, the overhead shot showed home fielders running out of the dugout to their positions--but the road team is in the field in that situation. This was while the current score was shown on the screen, with a live Don talking over it. A scene from a different night! Hell, the downtown Boston close-up night blimp shot is repeated all the time. They took one day/night's worth of blimp shots and are using them for the whole season! Terrible job. Oh, and one time they stuck with the fake live shot so long, it caused us to miss the first pitch of the inning. Double pet peeve!

And the whole thing with not cutting to the other camera on batted balls is getting worse. There was one play where our guy hits the ball, we hear the crowd react, the batter start to run, then we see the fielder throw him out. Only on the replay were we able to see that it was an incredible diving stop! Faster on the button, NESN.

Okay, better cut it short. Good night. Two games Saturday. Enjoy. Bring a sign.

As you know, WEEI has a studio with windows looking out onto Lansdowne Street. They're doing a show there right now*. (I don't know how many shows they're doing from there this weekend but it could be before every game.) So there's another place to display your anti-BostonSportsMedia signs. Tape 'em to the window if you like!

Another sign tip: You can buy a full pizza at Fenway Park. Use the box to make a sign. All you need is a marker. Sign folds up and stows nicely under your seat!


*Even if somebody good is in there, if that's possible, I'm sure they'll pass along your message to the rest of the crew...and if it's funny enough, they might read it on the air.

We face Kuroda tonight. You know which of the current Red Sox has the third-most at bats against him? Aaron Cook! Only Gonzalez and Ross are really familiar with the guy. AG has two dongs, three doubles, a single, and 6 walks in 23 at bats. Cody has a dong, two doubles, and two singles in 19 at bats.

Don't forget:

Take a quick peek at how long our infirmary roster is.

Hopefully it won't look as bad after Beckett 5-hits the Yanks tonight!

1. The twitter account for this blog is @rsfpt. It is there just as a way of letting people know when a new post goes up, but of course I have been sending out repeated tweets linking back to my posts about the "Anti-'Boston Sports Media' Sign Weekend," which starts tomorrow at Fenway Park. So feel free to re-tweet my tweets or whatever, or just make your own.

2. Joy of Sox has blogged about the anti-media event (and made a nice graphic for it, to go along with my hand-drawn one).

3. Zack Hample is writing about his recent attempt to catch a baseball from a helicopter. This post is currently complete through "part one," though he says he will be updating the post so the whole story should eventually be at that link. So read it now and then keep checking back there for updates. If you're reading this in 50 years, first of all, Welcome, my Futuristic Friend, people HAVE to be wearing silver suits by now, right? And second, yeah, the entire story should be up at that link.

So here are some of the blog entries that mention the Anti-BostonSportsMedia Sign Weekend, coming Friday to Fenway Park:

Boston Sports Media Watch

The Mighty Quinn Media Machine

Section 36.

Millers Time

Thanks to those bloggers and anyone else who has helped spread the word. Keep it going.

Another sign tip: Hold up your sign at batting practice. Get right to the front row by the dugout. A lot of the media hang around the dugouts in pre-game, and it's always a big crowd for a Sox-Yanks series. What I'm hoping for (aside from the Boston sports media culprits seeing the signs up close) is that one of the national photographers, or hell, even a local one, puts a picture of one of our signs online. It's the local media we're railing against here, so I'd be happy to see a national outlet help our cause. Or one of the good local ones who is on our side.

Oh, and in the sign suggestions, how could I forget the Boston media's all-time favorite bullshit buzzword? Panic! You could go with "I've never met a Red Sox fan who ACTUALLY PANICKED" or something. Or, "My Team Hasn't Had a Losing Record in 15 Years. Panic is not in my Vocabulary." Okay, those are really wordy. Do some editing. (Ooh, after the sweep in Oakland, maybe some media are whipping out their old standby now! Because of course it's impossible to make up 2 and a half games with only 81 to play! The perfect weekend for some anti-panic signage....)

Speaking of media buzz phrases, with another Sox-Yanks series coming up, how many more minutes until the first of the "the rivalry is dead" articles comes out? To whoever is gonna do it, please, this time can you start your article with "You've heard this a million times, but..."? Thanks. You sound like an ass when you act like you have an original idea, but it's really something that pops out of the mold every season.

Papi hit his 400th home run today. But we lost again to the A's, swept. Every motherfucking run in that series was either scored or knocked in by one of the ex-Sox, Coco, Reddick, and Moss. (Except for the 6th run in the 6-1 loss Monday--but Moss had a hit to move the run to third and it scored on a sac fly.) Those guys need to know that nobody hates them, they weren't wronged--no need to try extra hard against us, boys! We're in an important pennant race back east while you're out California-ing it up!

Now we go home for Anti-BostonSportsMedia Sign Weekend vs. the Yanks, who won today thanks in part to the Rays letting them score in the 8th on that classic baseball rally, "four walks."

I'm pretty pissed and not in the mood to talk about something stupid like this, but I still have to do it while it's relevant: You all know Overstock.com, right? The ads with that annoying woman on a white background, who was later replaced by a different one. Then they changed to O.co. Which didn't really work, so they changed it back. However, they'd already slapped "O.co" onto the Oakland Coliseum, so that's still what they call it: O.co Coliseum. Pretty simple. Yet Don Orsillo and Tom Caron cannot figure out how to say "O.co." It's the simplest url in history! O dot co. What's the problem? First game on f the series, Don calls it "Oco dot com Coliseum." He later talks about it with Remy (admitting he has trouble with these three simple sounds--at least he was honest) and says "you know what O.co is?" Remy had no clue either. So not only can they not say it, but they've never heard of it. These guys live where I live, they must have seen these commercials. Then introducing game two, TC calls it "oh dot cee oh." And every time after that, whenever he or Don said it, it was with obvious trepidation, like it's some kind of tongue twister. So we've got a well-known company, with the simplest name imaginable, whose name is also on an MLB park, yet these baseball announcers are unfamiliar with it and unaware of how one properly says "o" followed by a dot followed by the sound "co," to the point where they're actually scared to say it out loud. That one was a real mystery to me....

You people who go to bed early should be glad you missed this bullshit. We held a 2-1 lead and kept threatening to get some insurance yet couldn't. Meanwhile the pitching was unbelievable, keeping the A's at bay all the way until the 9th, when they pushed across the tying run thanks in part to an error, and then got a sac fly to win it.

The last few innings were crazy:

Top 8, we got the first two runners on base, only to have the next 3 guys go down.

Bottom 8, Padilla, who'd come in to get the last out of the 7th with the tying run on, gives up a line drive that Aviles just doesn't catch. Error. Coco singles and the next guy bunts 'em over, so the A's are in position to tie or take the lead. After an intentional walk to Reddick, Padilla shows a stomach of iron and strikes out the next two guys with the bases loaded, prompting Valentine to do a crazy arm-celebration in the dugout. Royster behind him could be seen doing the Karate Kid pose.

So it goes to the 9th, Sox still looking to extend the 1-run lead. We get the first two guys on. Guaranteed insurance, right? Nope, the inning would come to a crushing and end soon. Punto tries to sacrifice, and bunts a liner toward the charging first baseman, who makes a diving catch. Aviles is halfway to second. He sees he's gonna be a dead duck and stops running to first--WHICH YOU SHOULD NEVER DO BECAUSE THE GUY COULD MAKE A BAD THROW, and he does! Over the guy covering first's head, but he was able to jump, catch it behind the bag, and touch it. The weirdness came when Punto started arguing with the ump, as he had been running in case the ball was trapped. The second baseman touched first before Aviles got back but after Punto reached from home--so the ump had to clarify "I'm calling the runner out, asshole, you were out when the ball was caught." I still say Aviles could have made it close, but maybe he stopped since he saw Punto sprinting to first, thinking the ball wasn't caught. (Had Punto done this same sprint through the bag earlier instead of diving into first when there was no danger of a collision, maybe we'd have been up by more than one to begin with.) SO. It's now a man on second, two outs, and Kalish tries to steal third! And despite that he got there well before the fielder put the tag down, it appears the base was successfully blocked, and he didn't get the foot past the guy's leg. GODDAMN.

Bottom 9, we're still up by that little run. Aceves in. He gives up a single, but then gets a key pop-out. Next guy singles, so it's first and second. Moss comes up and lines one right back up the middle. Had Aceves been able to snare it, he easily doubles a runner off to end the game. Instead, he just misses. Kalish, playing very deep in center, still is going to have a chance to throw the tying run out at the plate, but he muffs it, can't pick it up cleanly, guy scores (he might have anyway), all runners move up. Error, and we're tied, with the winning run now at third instead of second. Then Coco (who homered in the first) hits a deep fly ball, sac fly, guy easily scores from third and the game's over. And of course insult is added to injury as Don does his usual routine where he's watching the A's RUN ON to the field while the Red Sox are forced to WALK OFF, yet perceives that as the A's "walking off with a win." His colleague Dennis Eckersley who coined the phrase (I was finally vindicated by an MLB article a while back, not that I needed it) needs to explain it to Don. I really think people do it because they're thinking of a cat burglar "walking away with the diamonds" or someone "walking off with 1.6 million dollars, never to be seen again," implying their theft was so perfect, they didn't even have to run away--nobody noticed the goods were gone until it was too late. If you just want to use that phrase, fine, use it for any game (final at bat win or not) where one team "steals" a victory. But the phrase "walk-off win" is used specifically when a home team wins in its final at bat, because the defense is forced to walk off the field, heads hung, as the game is suddenly over before the third out is made. This can only happen to the visiting team. Example: The O's won in their last at bat tonight on the road. Two-out, 9th inning home run. But the game didn't end at that moment. The M's stayed on the field (not forced to walk off it), got the last out, and took their last ups. You could say, using the non-baseball phrase mentioned above, that the O's "walked away with a victory" or "walked off with a 5-4 win"--but if you're referring to the baseball phrase "walk-off win," you can't, because it wasn't a walk-off win, which only the home team can have. Had the M's come back with two runs, they would have forced the O's to walk off and gotten a "walk-off win." But they wouldn't have "walked off," unless you mean figuratively, as with the diamonds. And if you tell me, Well Don DOES mean figuratively, then how come he only says it in games where the home team wins in its final at bat?

Anyway, I know I've explained that before, but I'm always down for a little clarification, especially in a world where everybody now uses the Don style, as the phrase has been officially corrupted. I need you now more than ever, Eck!

Lester was great tonight. After Coco led off with a dong, I suggested Coco would be his "Chili Davis." Which means he has a stellar performance, his one hit being the dong, while he strikes out 17. Allan Joy, being the huge Pedro fan, noted that you can't match that performance, which is true of course, but Jon gave it a go, giving up no more runs, just three more hits, and struck out 9. Too bad our hitters were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position. Those numbers on the entire road trip are horrible. Don said 4 for 40 or something, will have to check on that....

The Yanks lost in Tampa again, where they're on a/an historic losing streak--9 in a row at that park. And the Jays and O's won, so we were the only team not to gain on first place. This stinks. A win Monday night and we would have been in that second wild card spot, and alone in second place in the east. Now two losses later, we're alone in FOURTH again.

Tomorrow's the 4th of July. Those beaches WILL be open. And the Sox play the final game of the trip at 4:05 eastern, before coming home for the BIG WEEKEND, the final series before the break.

Another way to join in the anti Boston Sports Media campaign this weekend at Fenway: a home-made T-shirt. Just make sure you walk around a lot.

And Ryan came up with the idea of using the classic "E____ S____ P____ N____" acrostic-style sign. Networks love seeing their name on signs. Just try to make it clear that your message is about the local media and not the network itself, otherwise you've got no chance of getting it on the air.

If anybody has any more ideas for signs or things to do other than signs or T-shirts, feel free to send 'em along. Thanks.

One more sign idea, as I forgot to include this sports radio buzzword before:

"Boston Sports Media: Unlikeable!"

Everybody in the division lost tonight, except for Tampa, who beat the Yanks and join us in 3rd place. Too bad our O was shut down tonight, as a win would have put us in second place all alone. Jarrod Parker held us to just one run for the second time in 2012, he's having a nice year. Dice had nothing, giving up two early dongs to ex-Sox, Reddick and Moss. And as Warner Wolf would say, you could turn your sets off there, folks. Not that I would ever actually do that. 6-1 loss.

Keep telling your real-life and e-friends and your favorite Wacky Sports Gossip sites about anti-media weekend at Fenway. In fact, if any of you are on Sons of Sam Horn, please let those people know. Thanks. And yes, I'll be mentioning this in every post until the weekend. If any of you has a million Twitter followers (unlike me with my 14), please Tweet this. I'm doing all I can but I'm gonna need your help because nobody reads blogs anymore, thanks to everyone now being able to see what their stupid friends had for breakfast and tracking their every movement, which used to be called "stalking." Where was I? Ah yes, spread the word, please. Bring your anti-Boston Sports Media signs to Fenway Park this weekend!

This weekend, July 6-8, it's Yankees-Red Sox at Fenway Park. Four games, on four networks. Bring your anti-Boston Sports Media signs to the ballpark! Or make them once you're inside. The media's ego has exploded, and they're making not only themselves but us look like morons. It's time to let them know that they don't represent Red Sox fans, that it's not all about them, and that they need to leave the players alone and let them play ball!

The crucial games for this are Saturday night on Fox (shown to much of the country) and Sunday night on ESPN (shown to everybody). This isn't about them, it's about the local media, so I almost feel like they'd get a kick out of showing our signs, should there be enough of us holding them. Other media has already come to the realization that the Boston writers have gone too far. Maybe Fox or ESPN will see our movement and put it on the air.

But even if they don't--who cares?! We are in control! Bring your sign to the park, snap a picture of it, and send it out to everyone via whatever. Twitter or whatever else people do. (My tweets about this can be found here if you want to re-tweet them.) Any sign you see, take a picture of it, and post it. Make videos of the signs and YouTube them. We want the world to know how we feel. You want a hashtag for this? I don't know, make one up, maybe #BostonMediaShutUp or #AntiMediaFenwaySign. And if nothing else, all the fans around you will cheer for your sign and might be inspired to make their own. And if there are enough of us with signs aimed toward the press box, the media will know we're sick of them, regardless of whether any of the signs make it on the air.

We also need to spread the word for this plan, so let's do a blitz. Use whatever you use, but tell everybody about Anti-'Boston Sports Media' Sign Weekend at Fenway Park, July 6-8. Here's the link to this post if you want to use it. Or copy/paste this: http://tinyurl.com/bostonmediashutup

Sign suggestions:

The only thing TOXIC around here is the MEDIA

Boston Sports Media: Shut Up / Leave Our Red Sox Alone / Leave Papi (or whoever) Alone / Nobody's Here to see You / Save the drama for your mama / LET THEM PLAY

Beer / Chicken / Golf / Charity Work IS NOT A CRIME

Players & Fans: BOYCOTT the Boston Sports Media

Let's run the MEDIA out of town

I love the Red Sox, it's the media I hate

Go Red Sox, Go Home Media

Boston Sports Media Does Not Represent Red Sox Fans

Sports Radio Callers Are NOT Fans

I only boo the MEDIA (and the Yankees)

Or just pick your favorite writer and tell him what you think of him!

The goal is that by the time we get to Saturday night, everybody's on board, and Fox is forced to make the decision not to ignore our signs. And then it all culminates in the national broadcast Sunday night on ESPN, with hundreds of creative (way better than my suggestions--you can do it!) anti-media signs all over the park, and the ESPN announcers (Tito!) laughing along, loving it.

Tip: Bring a fake, innocent sign about it being your first game at Fenway or something, and bring your markers too. Then when you're at your seat, write your real message on the back. Just in case. I don't think we'd be breaking any rules, as long as we avoid profanity and put the damn thing down when the game is going on.

Thanks, everybody.

For the first time in 6 tries, the Red Sox won an extra-innings game in 2012. We were down 1-0 late, but Pedroia's solo dong tied it in the 8th. Kalish, pinch-hitting, started the 10th with a double. Pedroia singled him to third and Papi hit a deep fly to score what would be the winning run. Aceves breezed through the bottom of the 10th. 2-1 victory.

Yanks won, so we stay 6.5 back, but we're now alone in 3rd, and the O's are just a half-game ahead of us.

A few things from today's broadcast:

NESN's latest thing that ticks me off is not cutting to the field camera quick enough after a batter puts a ball in play. I understand that if it's a solid line drive right at an infielder, by the time you cut to the other camera, the ball could already be in the guy's glove. But they're so slow to cut that we're missing things. Today, Papi hit a liner, and we saw him start to run, then stop, before they cut to the other cam. So by then, we already knew it had to be caught. On Pedroia's key single in the 10th, by the time they cut to the field view, we'd already seen Pedroia take five running steps, and the ball was already rolled well into the outfield. He's running and I'm just sitting there waiting to see where the ball is so I'll know if the potential winning run has a chance of scoring. Oddly, you could see that for a split-second they actually cut to the close-up of Kalish running from second to third before showing us where the ball was. I had been thinking, "it's not like you have to decide which camera to cut to--you just have to make the call to cut as soon as the batter hits the ball," but apparently they don't even have that down. Guy hits ball, and director goes "What should I do? What should I do?!"

Jerry Remy made a bizarre call. Mariners guy swings and the ball goes foul, but he starts shaking his hand, like the ball caught flesh along with or instead of wood. Remy claims that if the ball had hit his hand, "he'd be going down to first base." No! The guy swung! Now you may be saying, Yeah but on a check swing where a guy gets hit, sometimes it looks like the bat went around but he really stopped the swing when..." No! He swung, all the way around. Yet Remy, who played the game, thought it would be a HBP.

Don and Jerry completely missed a play where Shoppach threw to second, but Doubront wasn't looking, and almost cut his head knocked off. Two camera angles showed it, but they did not mention it. I uploaded one view here. I wonder if the Seattle guys or the radio teams noticed this....

And finally, Jenny Dell was attacked by a Yeti in the Pacific Northwest today:

Didn't we just do this? Tie game, winning run on base, throw from right field is close, and Salty can't hold on (this one was a harder play than Friday), or else the guy's out. So the M's win for the second time in three nights in their final at bat. This time it was in the 11th, at 2:00 a.m. eastern. SHIT. Can still tie the series Sunday. Then we gotta win the one in Oakland for a positive road trip, before we come home for four with the Yanks leading up to the All-Star Break.