Sox/Angels tag at third in 9th

[rulesmaven]

Originally Posted by BretMan

It looked like Varitek lunged and made a tag (at least, what the umpire could have reasonably ruled a tag from his position- the first swipe at the runner looked like maybe there was a couple of inches of air between the mitt and the runner), held onto the ball, then lunged a second time making, apparently, another tag (I wonder- just to be "sure", or because he knew he missed the first tag?).

I didn't see it that way. It looked to me like Varitek got him the first time and knew he got him. On the way to ground, he held the glove up in the air a bit to show that he had the ball. (He had been holding it in his hand to possibly throw it and transferred it just before the tag.) I don't think there was a second lunge, just a continuation of the action. It appeared to me that once Welke saw Varitek hold the ball up, he decided he'd seen enough.