Holy cow, that Carlos Martinez slider is beautiful. And it also shows how much trouble the Red Sox found themselves when they ended up down after their disastrous defensive inning in the 7th: the Cardinals grow nasty relievers on trees, and that puts a monkey-wrench in the usual Red Sox strategy of working up the pitch-count of opposing starters and then going after the bullpens.

“Mr. Octobers” and “Headlines” are coming up in the coming hours, and by the end of the day, we have a very special edition of “Bizarre Baseball Culture”.