When looking back at Game 3 of the American League Division Series between the Red Sox and Rays, a few memories will undoubtedly separate themselves.
The controversial ground-rule double. Nick Pivetta's gutsy four innings. Christian Vazquez's walk-off homer. And then there was Kyle Schwarber's celebration.
It was such a simple play - lobbing a toss to Nathan Eovaldi on an easy grounder to first base. But considering Schwarber had airmailed a similar chance, the moment lent itself to an out-of-the-ordinary reaction, and that's exactly what the newbie first baseman gave the Fenway Park faithful.
"You've got to be able to make fun of yourself every once in a while and loosen the situation up," Schwarber said after the Red Sox' 13-inning, 6-4 win over the Rays. "Obviously, being new over there at first base, you make the error, and Nate picks you up. Unbelievable job by Nate (Eovaldi). You go out there and make the good old routine play and loosen it up a little bit.
"You've got to be able to make fun of yourself. It was a good time. I think I got a laugh out of pretty much almost everyone. It's a game. Like you've got to be able to laugh at yourself. At the end of the day, Nate went two, three right after that, and it was fun."
Red Sox manager Alex Cora, for one, was a huge fan of the Schwarber reaction.
"That was awesome," Cora said. "That's who they are. That's what we do. Of course we wanted to make the first play, and after that he makes the play, and everyone was excited because he did it. He did what he did, and I think it was great. Sometimes we take this game too seriously, and you can actually not enjoy it. If you do that, and although we take it seriously, we also have fun with it.
"We've been having fun for a long, long time although it doesn't look from other areas or whatever the people watch it, but we love the group. We love what we do. We're having fun, and here we are."
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