That save by Paps was either the most or least impressive save I’ve seen. I’m just not sure which.

Buried deep inside baseball clubhouses everywhere is the 10 commandments for closers. I risked life, limb, and losing my credentials the last time I was in there to steal half of them from the Mariners (hey, it’s not like it would help Aardsma anyways). We always knew that Paps doesn’t like to be told what to do, but this is kinda absurd:

“Thou shalt not walk the leadoff man, for he shall come around to score…unless he doesn’t.” — Only took five pitches to break that rule

“Thou shalt not put the tying run in scoring position with a terrible pickoff throw” — Paps did this before making his first pitch to the 2nd batter of the inning

“Thou shalt not throw mediocre fastballs down the middle” — Funny, you throw a fastball down the middle and even the number 8 hitter will get a single to center. Lucky for Paps, Iwamura stopped at 3rd.

“Thou shalt not fall behind 3-1 to the major’s home run leader” — This is the point when Red Sox fans start hoping for Paps to get out of the inning tied instead of behind.

“If all else fails, thou shalt strike out everybody” — Wait, this one he listens to? Of all these rules this is the one he decides is the one to obey? It was certainly spectacular, but wouldn’t it just have been easier to listen to the first couple of rules?

Paps striking out Pena, Upton and Crawford with the tying run on third was a sight to behold. In fact, using one of those cherry-picked stats, it was the first time a pitcher had struck out three straight batters to end the game with the tying run on third in 20 years. Which clearly makes it an amazing save, but much more of these type of saves and I’m going to need a respirator to watch the 9th.

Oh yeah, and Bay hit the game winning RBI in the 8th…again. Ho, hum.