There was the starting pitcher, present only in the television replays of the pitch to Carl Crawford, the swing, and the screaming liner, impacting Matt Clement near his right ear and sending him to the ground.
There was the third baseman, kneeling at the edge of the mound after Clement was felled, apparently in prayer, then later delivering an RBI single in the seventh and a crushed RBI double over first base in the ninth that sent the game to extra innings.
And there was, amid uncertainty and concern, a degree of accomplishment. The Red Sox won an epic game, 10-9, in 10 innings last night, despite blowing a 5-0 lead. In fact, there were a lot of ''despites."
They won despite Chad Bradford, a seventh-inning righthanded setup man, entering in the third inning in relief of Clement and surrendering, among three hits, a ceiling-scraper of a grand slam to Aubrey Huff that turned a 5-1 game into a 5-5 tie.
They won despite Jorge Cantu's fly ball to deep center with one out and a man on first in the ninth.
''I don't think negative in there [in the dugout] ever," Terry Francona said, but even the skipper acknowledged, ''I actually thought the ball was going to go out."
Johnny Damon drifted, and jumped. Did he catch it? It was difficult to tell. The loyalties of the Tampa Bay crowd, which would chant ''Ortiz, Ortiz" during an at-bat for David Ortiz, were too split to gauge whether the cheer was for a homer or a catch. And then Damon produced the ball.
Curt Schilling, who would have suffered his second relief loss in as many nights, waited for Damon -- the guy who didn't want him closing in the first place -- at the third-base bag. What did he say to Damon?
''Nice job," Damon said. ''You saved the game."
Tied at 8-8, Damon strode to the plate in the top of the 10th and unloaded on All-Star closer Danys Baez's first offering of the inning, launching a go-ahead home run to right.
''That's unbelievable," Francona said.
Clutch, thy face is Johnny Damon. Proof? With one aggressive swing -- the kind that suggests his right shoulder really has healed -- the Sox free-agent-to-be lifted his average after the seventh inning this season to .390 with 4 home runs and 22 RBIs.
