Since ESPN was kind enough to air it, I had the rare pleasure of watching the Red Sox game on TV tonight.
Or maybe I shouldn’t call it a pleasure.
Now, I missed the first three innings while my roommate claimed the TV, so I apparently missed the homerun portion of the game. But I did get to see Ortiz’s pitiful bunt bounce off the plate, right into the hands of Toronto’s catcher. I’m not exactly sure what was going through Francona’s head at that moment. “Hmm… we’re down by five. Our hottest clutch hitter is up. I know, time for a squeeze play!” There’s a brilliant scene in A League of Their Own all about why that’s a bad managerial call.
And given that the Yankees squeaked by Baltimore tonight, the Red Sox are currently stuck being tied for the wild card spot instead of leading the AL East. If Detroit can step it up and beat Chicago tomorrow, that’ll leave two weekend series to decide two division championships and the wild card spot — Good Sox/Yankees in Boston and Bad Sox/Indians in Cleveland. I briefly toyed with driving down to Cleveland on Saturday to catch a Cleveland/Chicago game, but the only remaining tickets are the $95 seats, and I’m not that rich. Besides which, I’m not sure who I’d root for — I’d like to see Cleveland overtake the Central Division, but not at the expense of costing the Red Sox a playoff berth if they can’t overcome the Yankees in the East.
And then comes October…
Edit: Lest my father disowns me… the Twins beat the Royals tonight. But at 15+ games out of the division, it doesn’t much matter. Except, um… go Twins.