Sox win in 15. All the long games seem to happen on Wednesday nights. Because it seems like I always have to take the recycling out after these crazy ones. Nice job by Drew's bro just making solid contact to get the game-winning hit. Which was a single with just one run allowed to score even though it bounced into the stands. In case you, unlike Don, Remy, and all of NESN, are wondering about that rule, it's described here.

So we move back into first place as the Rays lose.

A few randoms: On the Ortiz grounder to first in the 15th, don't you think the guy should have thrown to second to try for the lead runner? Wait, I'll rephrase. Whether or not you think he should have tried, don't you think the people paid to analyze the game should have at least brought up the possibility of going for the lead runner?

On Gomes's unassisted double play: Again, tell the viewers WHY he's running all the way in to double the guy off. I mean, you and I know, but not everybody does. Remy just acted like he was doing it for fun! I mean, sure, that is fun, but the point is, it was a case where he absolutely knew he'd make it there since the runner was so far gone, so rather than risk a wild throw, the most secure way to get the double play was to take it yourself. In such an important spot, he went with the most secure way.

On my logic being my curse: Not to get into a whole DVR crash course, but here's how it went down for me tonight: Saw through the 6th, then went over to Burlesque Neighbor's house to hang out for a while. DVR'd rest of game, along with the 10:00 show, the 10:30 show, the 11:00 show, and yes, just to be safe, the 11:30 show. That way I knew if the game went long I'd have it all recorded. Ended up getting home at 11:47. Even if you change the channel before you leave, it reverts to the channel it's recording any time a new recorded show begins. So I flipped on the TV, and had the mute button ready, so I wouldn't hear any results, knowing NESN would come right on. Not knowing when the mute would be allowed to kick in, I pressed it over and over, figuring when I heard sound, I'd press it once more (all while shielding my eyes from the screen of course) to officially kill the sound, then hit my DVR button and find the recording I wanted. Well, in that split fucking second of sound, I heard ambient crowd noise. The average Joseph wouldn't have even noticed. But I immediately knew, since Sox in 2 wouldn't have started yet, that the game was still going on. It had to be extra innings. What I heard had to be the sound of the game still going on. I said to Kim, "I have a feeling the game's in like the 15th inning." I would be right. I went back and started watching from where I'd left off. Pedroia dong, we lead. They tie it with a dong. Yup, we're tied. At that point I went through 2 hours (10:00-12:00) of baseball on basically 8x speed, knowing this game was going extras. I knew I could just cut to real time and suddenly be watching the live game, having missed nothing (essentially). But I went through, inning by inning, and finally caught up around 12:10. (With a pause to record the 12:00-2:00 time slot.) So even though I'm pissed at my being so logical to the point where a half-second of crowd noise ruins 2 hours of baseball for me, I'm kinda glad that I knew I could get to real time relatively fast and be watching live when we won. But I was also pissed when we had the guy on third in whatever inning that was. I'm thinking, "Well, I know it's gonna be a fly out where we're thrown out at the plate to keep the game going, so go ahead and show it to me!" And there it was. This is like when I'd have someone tape the Jets game for me, and they'd stop the tape right after the ending--Jets go for game-tying field goal with 1 second left, and I see the VCR counter saying "-0:34, -0:33.." and I figure out there will be no overtime, the kick will be missed. I'm too in-fucking-tuitive for my own good sometimes. This is why I can't ask anybody anything about a movie I haven't seen yet. As soon as I say the name of the movie, I can see the goddamn ending projected right on the person's face.

A few minutes later, the Yanks game was ending, and despite Vin Scully acting like nothing's wrong, it was Hanley Ramirez's eff-up that gave the Yanks the win. Couldn't get ball out of glove on Cano DP ball. Yanks win in 9th. Scully drones on all laid-back and LA-like, instead of going, "And that's huge! Ramirez FUCKS THE FUCK UP and Cano is barely safe!" So they stay 8 back. Rays .5 back. O's got destroyed by the Astros somehow, so they're 5.5 behind us now. Jays: 14. We're a game behind Pittsburgh for best record in baseball.

Happy New Month!