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| (AP Photo) |
The Red Sox pitching staff struck out 23 Rays—a record 21 in nine innings and 11 straight at one point. These days you can't even do that at
SeaWorld! But it was not
Boston's swing-and-miss prowess that was the
real story of this game—it was the
Tampa catcher's swing and miss on a botched tag of
Dustin Pedroia at the plate.
The Muddy Chicken should have been out by 15 feet, but he put on more moves than
Walter Payton to pretzel his way around the tag. At one point it looked like a hardball version of
Twister. The 10-inning run counted and
Boston's 3-2 win reduced it's
Magic Number to clinch the division down to just
two. Pedroia had clouted a solo HR earlier to provide a 2-1 edge, but this weird game had many more oddities to come.
Eduardo Rodriguez pitched well for 5 1/3 innings—striking out 13 and giving up just three hits. And, of course,
David Ortiz—in his final at-bat at
The Trop—doubled in
The Laser Show with the eventual winning run. Enough stuff for you?
