I would have rather seen any playoff team in the World Series than the two who made it. Rays-Pirates would have been ideal, but I would have settled for Dodgers-Tigers. The Cardinals are consistently a problem for my preferred "New playoff teams every year" scenario, and the Red Sox are... Eh, screw it. Does anyone really need a reason to root against the Red Sox? But let's make one thing clear: Baseball's two best teams are playing for the championship. Tonight, they pretty much looked like it. Sometimes in sports, we get a game so nerve-racking and intense that our feelings about the teams involved don't even matter. Game 3 of the World Series was a brilliant, exhausting game played by two brilliant, exhausting teams. Even watching it on mute to minimize the McCarver effect (accompanied by Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers and Letters to Cleo) and vaguely rooting against both teams, this was an emotionally draining piece of sports history. So many gasp-inducing plays. Jake Peavy throwing batting practice in the first inning, then turning into Harry Houdini for the next three. The Red Sox playing scrappyball to tie it up. The Cardinals taking a late lead on Matt Holliday's double, only for the Red Sox to regain the tie against the hellfire bullpen tandem of Martinez and Rosenthal.
And then there was Allen Craig getting tied up with Will Middlebrooks. The umps made the game-deciding call, and got it right. Let's talk about that for a moment. Watch Middlebrooks dive for Saltalamacchia's errant throw. Watch him land and sprawl face-down. Then, watch him kick his legs up again as Craig sees the ball leave the infield and starts to run home. Voluntary or in-, the rule applies. But there was nothing involuntary about that.
Someone without injured ankles who was watching where he was going probably would have been able to hurdle those flailing calves, but Allen Craig was neither healthy nor attentive. He fell down, Jim Joyce called the obstruction, and a fascinating game had an ending to match. Here's hoping we get 4 more just like it. Baseball- hell yeah.
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