The Red Sox tied the World Series at two games apiece with a 4-2 win in St. Louis last night. For the second straight night, a World Series game ending in a fashion that had never previously happened. After a walk-off obstruction call on Saturday night, last night Koji Uehara picked off pinch runner Kolten Wong at first base to end the game and allow Jonny Gomes’ three-run homer in the sixth inning to stand up.
Clay Buchholz went four innings last night with greatly reduced stuff, his fastball topping out at around 88. After all the talk about how he just needed to toughen up and pitch, we got an idea at least about why he was hesitant to do so. Hopefully that talk quiets down some now, but somehow I doubt it.
Get a feel for the rest of the coverage at RedSoxLinks.com, and remember that only three games at most remain in the Tim McCarver era!
I wish we could say the same about Gary Tanguay – I couldn’t get away from the guy yesterday, whether it was on the Patriots pre-post shows on the radio – after the game he was telling Gresh and Zo to “hold off on the parade” when they were praising the play of the undrafted rookies on the defensive line, and then I see him on TV on CSNNE following the Red Sox game, where all he seemed to want to talk about was John Farrell’s managing shortcomings.
At least we won’t be seeing him on the Celtics telecasts this season, even though that might be a team actually worth complaining about.
A few items related to football and the Patriots:
It appears that Troy Brown’s training has been completed:
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You’ll recall last week’s big issue was the call on the Patriots in overtime, which allowed the Jets to kick a much easier game winning field goal.
In the aftermath, it was pointed out, even by Bill Belichick, that the Jets had also pushed on a FG attempt by the Patriots in regulation. Rex Ryan denied that accusation, strongly, and media rushed to declare the Jets innocent of any wrongdoing.
You might have missed it, but very quietly it was revealed yesterday that the league determined that the Jets did indeed break the rule.
NFL admits Jets should have been flagged for field goal push
So we’ve gone from not the same stratosphere and nowhere close, to exactly the same. Got it.
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I’d say it’s good that Ben Volin doesn’t work in Vegas. Poor guy has had an incredibly unlucky streak in the weekly predictions in the Globe. He’s 45-60-2 on the season, but his “Best Bets” are now 0-8 on the year, after he picked the Jets yesterday to cover and they were beaten 49-9.
Boston Sports Media Watch 
Is it just me or did Fox completely miss Xander Bogarts at-bat (and base hit) in the top of the 6th inning because they were too busy showing 7 different replays of the Gomes HR that everyone watching the game had already seen? Because you know “they were watching the game” and it happened like 15 seconds ago…
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Random opinions on the above story…
Loved seeing that Schefter report on the Jets FG push. Funny I haven’t seen or heard any of the NFL media guys: Breer, Bedard (who I actually like), etc retracting their earlier statements or admitting they were wrong. Only Mike Reiss had that one right.
Two awesome results yesterday with the Pats and Sox games. But I don’t know which guy is more awful at his job: Phil Simms or Tim McCarver. Probably my least favorite analysts in their respective sports.
In defense of Troy Brown, I think he was saying that in his opinion Brady was hurt. And if they got down 24-3 and he was still playing poorly, no reason to keep him out there. Obviously, he was wrong, but I think his comment needs a little context.
Finally, I hate the Clay Buchholz stuff from the tough guy Boston media. Clearly something is wrong with him. He took the ball and gave them 4 good innings and possibly would have given them more had he not been PH for. I don’t know what more there is to question. He’s not throwing 86-88 because he wants to. He’s not right. Is he fragile? Yes. But calling out his toughness from behind a microphone or a keyboard disgusts me. Always has. Not one of these clowns has any idea what kind of discomfort/pain he’s in.
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Going to proceed with that tired and lame media/columnist writing device by emptying my own sports media drawer of various items:
1) Bert Breer is a complete tool, and I’m not talking about anything made by Black & Decker or Stanley.
2) Note to Buck, McCarver, and the rest of the Fox WS production team. You don’t need to keep beating us over the head about Xander Bogaerts’ age. We get it. He’s a young guy. We also know that the Cardinals have a bunch of young pitchers who throw heat. And, yup, we already know that Beltran has never been to a WS before now. So, just stop it already.
3) Speaking of McCarver, is there another human being on the planet who says and offers so little for someone who talks so much? Oh, that’s right. Joe Buck . . . come on down!
4) Trying to decide who I want to see contract a disfiguring and potentially crippling STD more — Tanguay, Breer, or Mazz? Not as easy a decision as one would think, is it? However, when push comes to shove, I’m going with the unctuous Breer.
5) The Sox are definitely playing with house money at this point by getting to at least Game 6 of the WS and they’ve been a great story pretty much all season. However, should they ultimately drop this series, get ready for the usual drivel from the usual miserable SOBs of the Fourth Estate pointing out to us how foolish we all were for even thinking that this “flawed” team could win it all. EXAMPLE: “But Mike, I’ve been saying for six months that this team isn’t going anywhere!!”
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Lmao…Volin picking Jets to cover…that could have been the EASIEST game of the week to pick, right up there with 49ers over Jaguars. Jets had their Super Bowl the week before against Pats…. on the road, rookie QB against a very good defense?…you could see the Jets were going to get blown out coming from a mile away…..
and Troy Brown?…it’s why I always say once athletes cross over to the “dark side” I don’t care if they played the game. Now they’ve gotta play the “media game” or they’ll be out on their ass….(there are exceptions. Matt Chatham, Rodney Harrison and Willie McGinest are pretty good….so far)
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Media hacks like Tanguay waddle over here to see what’s being said about them, so I know I’ll hit my mark when I say that people like him have only one skill: reading ‘Hair Club for Men’ ad copy.
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Bruce, how did you miss the fact that FOX missed the pick off move because they were going all pink hatty on us panning the crowd for people biting their finger nails? How they could allow that to happen is unreal.
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