John Tomase reacts to the moves Craig Breslow and the Red Sox made to improve the club’s roster before the MLB trade deadline.
Dominic Smith belatedly lumbered home on a wild pitch, crash-landed just shy of the runway, and raised a cloud of dirt while Royals pitcher Seth Lugo applied the tag. Out, out, a thousand times out.
Except this happened to be instance No. 1,001, and it provided just the latest evidence that this Red Sox season is blessed.
Red Sox replay coordinator Mike Brenly might be the fastest draw in the league, and he immediately saw what the rest of us needed multiple replays to ascertain. Even though the throw beat Smith handily, and even though Lugo had his glove down in front of home at roughly the moment the Red Sox runner was taking a divot out of the third base line, Smith somehow snuck his hand through the maelstrom to score the improbable go-ahead run.
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Manager Alex Cora challenged the call, sporting a big smile in the visiting dugout. He knew it would be overturned and without that run, the Red Sox probably don't beat the Royals 6-5 on Tuesday to pull within a half game of Kansas City in the wild card race. They can complete the sweep on Wednesday night.
"Dom wasn't too sure, he thought he was out," Cora told reporters, including MLB.com. "You kept looking and looking at it and it was like, 'Man, he got that in him – the swim move.' Hesitation on the ball, you don't want to make the out at the plate, but when you got to go, you go.
"We needed every inch tonight."
Some seasons are just meant to be, and this feels like one of them. The 224-pound Smith resembled Mo Vaughn as he chugged down the line after misreading Lugo's curveball in the dirt. He had no business scoring once he made his late break, but such is the story of the 2024 Red Sox.
It was reminiscent of Jose Tartabull throwing out Ken Berry at the plate to end an August encounter with the White Sox during the Impossible Dream season of 1967 (and let's be thankful replay didn't exist for that one). Or Jeff Stone becoming the unlikeliest of heroes by making his only hit of the 1990 season a walk-off that September against the Blue Jays. Or Daniel Nava blasting a game-winning homer on "this is our bleeping city" day in 2013.
All three are remembered as magical seasons, even if only one of them ended in a World Series. This one almost assuredly won't join the latter in the trophy-raising department, but who cares? There's value in the journey, and if it wasn't clear already, the Red Sox are taking us on one unexpected ride.
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How else to explain Smith's dash for glory? Lugo's curveball deflected off the home plate umpire and reached the backstop, but Smith got such a late jump, he should've been cooked. As for his "swim" move to avoid the tag, let's hope there was a lifeguard on duty.
"I didn't really take off until I heard everybody screaming 'Go!' and then seeing the ball finally roll to the wall," Smith told reporters. "Way too late. If you're taking off when the coaches are saying go, nine times out of 10 you're going to be out. So I guess it's that one time when you're not.
"My slide is a little bit slower than other people's, so I might have a little bit more time to move," he added. "So I think it's just something where you're trying to see his glove. You're trying to touch the base before he touches you, and I was able to do that right there."
The Red Sox are giving themselves every chance to reach the playoffs. By taking two out of three from the Mariners last week, they clinched the season series. Tuesday's win did the same vs. Kansas City, giving them potential tie-breakers vs. both teams. They now lead K.C. in the loss column.
It's the kind of thing no one saw coming, and they're not going anywhere. Even when they're dead to rights, they find an opening, and then they find a way.
