You Knew It Was Coming...

...but you still just can't believe it.

In the bottom of the 8th in tonight's Sox-Yankees game, Nick Johnson flied out to start the inning. With Boston up by three runs, I thought to myself "OK the Red Sox have a chance to win this game, as long as he doesn't say it. Don't say it. Don't say it." And then Joe Buck said it: "The Red Sox are five defensive outs away..." Right then I knew that the Sox had absolutely no chance.

Fox announcer Thom Brennaman cast the exact same jinx on the Cubs two nights ago. After the Marlins made the first out of the 8th, he made the "five outs away" comment, which of course cemented the Chicago collapse. Don't these guys know that you cannot make the "x outs away" remark until the 9th inning? I wish people would come to their senses and realize that it's jinxes, not curses that dominate important sports games. The concept of a long-standing curse is too broad; it affects franchises and seasons. But jinxes are much more individualized and specific; they affect teams and games. Jinxes can happen in an instant, out of nowhere- a much more reasonable explanation for the dramatic turns-of-event that take place in a high-stakes playoff game.