When I tell my kids and grandkids stories about the Red Sox, I’ll always have to mention Jordan Green. Yes, the same Jordan Green who roots for the Cubs, lives in Arizona, and writes for this website on occasion. Let me explain.

I was headed to bed. It was the seventh inning stretch, but it felt like the 14th inning stretch. That’s what being manhandled by a team will do to you. The Rays were superior to us in every facet of the game for those first 39 outs. They out-pitched, out-hit, and out-ran us, and honestly, I was tired. The score was 7-0, it was after 11pm, and I really didn’t feel like staying awake for another hour just to watch B.J. Upton smack another one high over Jason Bay’s head. So I turned the TV off in the basement and came upstairs.

BUT…before I turned out the lights in the kitchen I jumped on the laptop to check my email. I had one new message from Jordan. I opened it up and read it and decided to take 2 minutes to write him back. While I did that, I figured I should open up the Sportsline Gamecenter in another tab, which I did that to find that we had 2 runners on base in the bottom of the 7th. As I’m writing Jordan I’m also checking the score. Pedroia singles to put us on the board. Then Ortiz homers. Wow, it’s 7-4. I send the email off to Jordan and decide to head back to the basement to see if the Sox can make a game of it.

I guess you know the rest by now. Jonathan Papelbon pitched a scoreless 8th. Joe Maddon brought in a tired Dan Wheeler in the bottom of the 8th and J.D. Drew smoked a 2-run homer to cut the lead to 1. Then Mark Kotsay doubled over B.J. Upton’s head – which I took great pleasure in because Chip Caray was praising Upton earlier in the game on routine plays like Upton was Willie Mays – and then Coco Crisp had an amazing 11-pitch at bat that ended in a game-tying single. In the top of the 9th Justin Masterson got Carlos Pena to ground into an inning ending double play, and in the bottom of the 9th Kevin Youkilis reached second on a throwing error by Longoria. Once again J.D. Drew provided the big hit, doubling into the visiting bullpen to score Youkilis, and give the Red Sox an improbable 8-7 win.

My brother-in-law Chad (a Phillies fan) and I were texting during the last inning, and when Drew drove in that winning run at 12:15am, I ran to his house to give him a high-five. It was a “Must High Five Somebody” moment, and my wife probably wouldn’t have appreciated me slapping her hand in her REM sleep. Thankfully Chad only lives 4 houses down the street.

If you watched the game, you know it really was more than a 7-run comeback win. The Red Sox were dead. They were making tee times at local golf courses. The Rays were giggling and comparing their mohawks. The announcers were talking about how the Rays matched up with the Phillies. It was over. Or so they thought. OR SO I THOUGHT.

Now I need to try and go to bed. I’ve got work in the morning and it’s 1:30am, an hour later, and I’m still buzzing. Wow, that was so much fun to watch. Even if the Sox don’t win Game 6, I’ll always have that memory. Wow. Okay, I’ll stop now. Man, sometimes I love sports.

And to think, if my inbox would have had no new messages when I went to check it, I probably would have slept through the whole thing. Thank you Jordan Green for your email. You just indirectly made it into my “Top 10 Sports Moments of All Time” List. (You can cross that off of your life goal list – I’m sure it’s on there somewhere).

NOW I’m going to bed…this time for real.