For another 14 innings this was looking to be a pretty ugly day. Byrd continued tipping his pitches and low and behold, he got rocked by the team that has become famous for stealing signs, 8-1.

The second game was ugly too, but I’ll take any victory against the Jays of Canadia. You wonder if there was some kind of bet in the clubhouse going to see if they could score their runs in the strangest manner possible. Here’s how the Sox scored their seven runs:

• In the first, both Ellsbury and Pedroia scored on a wild pitch after Zaun threw the ball away trying to throw out Ellsbury at the plate to give the Sox a 2-0 lead.
• In the sixth, a sac fly by Lowrie cut the Jays lead to 5-3.
• In the seventh, an RBI groundout by Youks scored Ellsbury, 5-4 Jays.
• In the eighth, after a leadoff double by Bay, Lowrie singled to Rios to tie up the game at 5.
• With two down in the eighth, Ellsbury took a full swing where the ball travelled 25 feet up the first base line and stopped. Lowrie scored from third and the Sox had a 6-5 lead.
• Two batters later Papi doubled off the Monster to add an insurance run, 7-5 Sox.

So the Sox got four of their seven runs without a hit, and one on a hit that Kim could have hit harder with her eyes closed. I guess ugly victories are somewhat common for this team…it’s not like they’re going to be on the cover of GQ anytime soon.

With the win and the split of the doubleheader (whew!), the Sox official playoff magic number countdown begins. It’s 10 and counting…