Didn't I say 5-2!? Oh yeah. Though if it had been 7-1 I would have said "aw I shoulda gone with my instincts" and acted like I essentially got it right. But still, my final answer was 5-2, and it was 5-2. Please send me cash and prizes.

Why didn't that guy slide?

Nice job by UE catching Salty's dong while on the bullpen mound. Lavangie didn't seem to care.

My mom gets to see all the great games!

We stay 1 game up on Tamp., 5.5 over Balt.

Longest current winning streak in A.L.: Detroit, 7 games

Longest current winning streak in N.L.: Atlanta, 9 games

Longest losing streak in MLB: White Sox, 9 games

Team farthest from first place: Houston, 27.5 games out in N.L. West

Four of the five teams in the A.L. Central have either won or lost 9 of their last 10 games.

The Astros have scored 12 fewer runs than the Pirates. But they've given up 201 more runs than the Pirates.

What stinks is that if Lester was only half as crappy as he was tonight, it's an easy win. Instead, a 1-run L, even though we had two on with one out in the ninth. Tampa lost so we stay 1 up. Balty closes to 4.5. CC gives up 5 runs on 11 hits in San Diego, Yanks stay 8.5 back.

My mom and nephew in the house Saturday for Peavy's Sox debut. I don't think he'll give up more than a run or two as Boston cruises to the 6, 7, or 8 to 2 or 3 victory. Actually, I take back that first part since their guy has been outstanding this year. Let's call it 5-2.

When TC gave the Orioles score during last night's game, I thought it was funny that he said they came "all the way back" from a two-run deficit to win. And I didn't think any more about it until later I realized the game was still going on and the score was different. Wait...didn't TC say it was over? I rewound, and listened again. Despite the screen showing it was the 7th inning, TC did indeed say, "5-2 the final, Baltimore wins." Wow. Terrible job. The Orioles would (much, much later) go on to win, 6-3.



(Funny bonus: hearing Don Burgundy just go right along with it.)


PS I don't know if they ever revisited this and/or if TC corrected himself, if they did, I missed it.

I totally admit Kim and I were sitting there going, "it's kinda good we gave up a lot of runs in a game where we're not scoring any runs anyway." The King gave up 1 run over seven innings and left with a 7-1 lead. But we stuck with it, and the Furry Bush/Wilhelm Scream/Ollie North/Funky Cold Medina combo gave up 7 over the last two. Red Sox score 6 in 9th to win, 8-7. The poor M's never even got the second out. I love that Nava got to atone for his baserunning weirdness from the other night with the game-winning hit. And Jonny Wad came through again, tying the game after making what turned out to be key defensive plays in the top of the ninth.

So we're a game up on Tampa for first. And tied* with the Pirates for best record in baseball. Woohooooooooooooooo!


*pct. pts. bhnd.

Tonight's the night the King gives up like five earned, let's do it, Sox O!

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!

The M's were hot, and we'd had our troubles with Saunders, but I knew it'd be a W tonight. The Blue Collar Man had his third straight good start. TC said he's the first Sock to pitch 6 or more innings and give up 2 or fewer runs in each of his first three starts since Don Aase in the late 70s. Ells, Pedr, and Saltal went deep--we were up 5-1 after 2 and you could turn your sets off there, folks. Sox win 8-2. (And Dr. Frank Field was at the game! This is Warner Wolf.)

A few things:

1. Remember Pedroia's RBI single where he got thrown out going back to first? Yes? Let's talk about that. There were two outs. We saw the shot of Victorino between third and home. My immediate thought was, "he's kinda jogging--I hope Pedroia doesn't go for two because if he's thrown out, it might be before Shane crosses the plate, and his run wouldn't count." He was looking back at the play, and he appeared to be close to home, so it wasn't that much of a worry, but as it turns out, Pedroia started to go for two, went to far, and was thrown out back at first pretty quickly. Fortunately we've got cameras, producers, and announcers to tell us whether or not the run counted and how close it was, provide a split screen showing the two plays side by side, and talk about the rules (third out made on force vs. non-force) and why running hard to home in that situation is crucial. We got none of that, though. Never even came up. And what kills me is that a casual fan wouldn't even know that anything was wrong there, they'd see one more run on the scoreboard and not even know how close to the sun they flew. They got no help from the supposed professionals. I mean Jesus, even if it wasn't even close, Don's gotta say something like, "the runner did cross the plate before Dustin was tagged out, so that run counts." I ended up doing my own slo-mo replay of Victorino and I had to estimate by the cut of the grass how many steps away from home he was and how long it would have taken to get there vs. the time it took for Dustin to get tagged out. I have to assume since Shane was watching, he probably sped up and made sure he got in there, but I think he was only 3-4.5 steps ahead of that tag. Close enough to warrant a replay/discussion.

2. TC said something about how we're "getting rid of the AL East and taking advantage" of playing a team from another division. Does this motherfucker know that we're 8 games over .500 against the East? No other team in the division is more that 2 over. We just won a series on the road against Baltimore, won one at home against New York, and might have split four with the Rays had it not been for an egregiously bad call. So we're not running scared from our divisional foes. But they've always gotta sell the drama.

3. Had the first few innings on radio. So pissed I had to hear Clemens in the booth--and to make it worse, he ends up shouting "uh-oh! uh-oh! uh-oh!" DURING the Pedroia home run call. Later I saw NESN's postgame highlight list and it included "Clemens back at Fenway." I purposely didn't watch because I didn't know what the fuck was going on, and I was getting ready to get really pissed about him being welcomed back into the fold, but then I saw online that the reason he'd been there was for a little Morgan's Magic celebration. My happiness about that trumps the pissed-ness of Asshole being there. (And it makes me wonder why the hell wouldn't have titled that highlight "Morgan's Magic Remembered at Fenway." Hello?) Did I ever tell you about the time I went to that Morgan's Magic-opening doubleheader to start the second half in '88? What an awesome summer that was.

4. MLB's scoreboard is running about two innings behind tonight. And more than an hour after the Red Sox game, the box score has a complete linescore, but the stats only go through the 7th inning. Why is mlb.com so non-2013-y?

5. Just went to check the Yanks-Dodgers score (at a different, not-two-innings-late-updating site), and I see we got Jake Peavy. Or at least that's what "sources" are saying. Whoa. We're trading Iglesias. For two months of a 32-year old pitcher who is good but not "knock your sox off" good. All I'll say is, this Xander Bogeaeaoeaooeaoeartz guy better reeaoeoaeoaoally good....

Newport sunset from last week:

Two important players in Red Sox history have died.

George "Boomer" Scott got an obit from The New York Times (which terribly includes David Wells), after dying most likely from complications from diabetes at age 69. Boomer was part of the Impossible Dream team of '67, and returned to the team in the late '70s just in time for some more magical runs that didn't have quite enough eye-of-newt. Quite a character, the Real Boomer will be missed.

Frank Castillo drowned while swimming in Arizona. I put the "important" status on him because if you're a "new" Red Sox fan, you missed out on the struggles of that juuust-pre-glory era of the early '00s. Frank was out there every fifth day in '01 and '02 and we all suffered along with him. He was able to get his ring in '04, as he briefly rejoined the team for two appearances in April of that year. I always think of Ellis Burks as the guy who'd returned just in time to get what he never got while he was here the first time. But maybe Castillo is more representative of that--he got his ring for appearing in '04, but we'll just say he was really being rewarded for his efforts from a few years before, as we desperately tried to topple the Yankee Roid-pire. Check out this gem he pitched at Yankee Stadium in June '02, to keep us in first place.

I hate that we lost on a bad call*, but I morefully hate that Nava couldn't score from second on a ball over the right fielder's head. It would have tied the game in the 8th. I had Castig at the time, and I still don't know why he wasn't more shocked. He acted like guys only go second to third on doubles all the time!

So we're a half game out. It was pretty cool the day before when we jumped into first with the nice win. But I knew we'd win because the Red Sox always win on your wedding day. Now Seattle comes in for three so hopefully we get back to the top spot.

*Like the ump, NESN was out of position. Meaning they never gave us a good replay. There was the first base side angle which had Molina blocking us, and there were two from behind the plate. One of these was the one where they acted like he was clearly safe. But I just wasn't seeing it. The glove was hidden by Nava's leg. So how do we know it wasn't on him? If they'd shown us any other angle, even if it didn't show everything, we could use it for triangulation, like, maybe we could tell how long it takes for him to bring the glove down. Then using that info, we check the other replay and judge it that way. I don't think he was out, and Nava and Farrell acted like it was the worst call in the world, so I guess I'll assume they know what they're talking about and be pissed about this.

Some weird stuff tonight, including a dong - turned-inside-the-park(ish)-dong - reverted-to-regular-dong, another catcher's interference with Ellsbury* up, and Papi turning around and batting right-handed against Bob Phonebox:



*A few days ago, Jacoby swung and then did the "look back," but NESN said nothing, and the ump didn't call it. May have even been the final out of a game. Anyone remember this?

Anyway, we won, so we stay a half-game out, since the Yanks got laughed out of their own park today by Tampa's pitcher. Sterling is so funny when he talks about how the Yankees "don't score any runs," and then of course talks about it again and again and again and says how he's beating a dead horse but just keeps on saying it. 0-2 for them in the Sorry Asshole Havana Nights Era. We're up 4 on the O's and 7.5 on NY.

Funny error alert:

Saw this on page 3 of a little magazine about Block Island. If you own a restaurant, you better damn well know how to spell "restaurant." Even if you don't, and you truly don't care and choose to just concentrate on running the place rather than spelling, I'd think you'd want to pay someone who does know how to spell it, and use their services when placing your full-page ad in magazines. And tell them to especially get it right in that portion of the ad which shows the company's name. Maybe even do a double check.

Actually, I should be criticizing the typing and the lack of double-checking most of all--I doubt the owner or ad-maker actually thinks the word is pronounced with a T where that second R is supposed to be, but whatever, you get the point. Spell your own damn name right.