Again a pitcher shuts us down for nine innings. They got their early runs on weirdness. We never recovered. The lead is a half-game. TC said the A.L. East is "as tight as ever." The guy knows we weren't even in first place a few months ago, right? Anyway, the O's, Yanks, serial comma, and Jays lost, so they all stay where they were.

Without further fest doo-doo, here's a video I made. Below is a text description in case you can't watch video or whatever.



Basically, two games ago, a Rays pitcher made a snap throw to first. It looked like his hat fell off. Remy noted this but instead of getting a replay of the pitcher, we get one of the runner getting back to first base. They never showed the correct replay, and they never spoke of the play again. That alone is funny--classic NESN, doin' it wrong. But when I rewound, I noticed that the pitcher, after stepping off the rubber, actually took his glove hand out of his glove and started to take off his hat to wipe his brow. Meanwhile, the ball is still in the throwing hand, with the glove resting on top of it. Without warning he just throws the ball to first, letting the glove fall to the ground, like a mobster shooting a stoolie through a brown paper bag. Or one of those flower boxes. The other hand on the hat was the distraction--it looked like he was taking a rest, just wiping the brow. Then boom, he throws to first. I also noticed that earlier, he had done the same thing, only without the throw. Just leaves glove resting on ball-in-hand and removes hat, wipes brow with sleeve. I should also point out that maybe this guy is famous for this move and I've just never noticed until now. I should also point out that it's not a balk because he steps off the rubber first. I should also point out that all of these cheesecakes were very delicious.