ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- J.D. Drew summed up a play, and perhaps a season.

"Tonight," said the Red Sox outfielder, "was very strange."

When one of the biggest moments of a game -- and perhaps the entire season -- occurs when an outfielder admits he inadvertently caught a ball he wasn't trying to grab, that officially qualifies as "strange."

The end result was a Tropicana Field security guard asking if Tampa Bay's hero of the night should not be called Dan 'Bleeping' Johnson. The moniker made some sense considering the Rays' DH's walk-off homer in the 10th inning -- leading to a 3-2 loss for the Red Sox -- was his third homer against the Sox since Johnson joined Tampa Bay in 2008. What makes it bizarre is that he only has four total during that span. (For a game recap click here.)

That abnormality, however, was of little importance to the Red Sox.

"It's whatever," said Sox manager Terry Francona when asked of Johnson's timing. "I don't care who hits it, it hurts either way."

But the moment that Drew had been focused on -- and most ended up debating -- came in the seventh inning. In a season of injury-induced head-scratching, the play offered another healthy dose of confusion … especially for the player at the heart of the controversy.

To set the scene …

With the Red Sox holding a 1-0 lead and Clay Buchholz cruising along, smack dab in a 25-inning scoreless streak, when Tampa Bay's Carlos Pena found himself standing at first base with one out after grounding into a fielder's choice. 

Upon instructions from the Sox' bench, the starter threw over to first to keep the baserunner close with the count 2-2 to the batter, Matt Joyce. The problem came when the token look went wide of first baseman MIke Lowell, allowing Pena to reach third.

"It was from the dugout. I just tried to throw it too quick," Buchholz explained. "It was basically just a checkover throw to make sure he knew that I still knew he was over there. I screwed it up."

Two pitches after the errant pickoff throw, Joyce lofted a lazy fly ball toward the Rays' bullpen. That's where the incident in question takes place.

Drew, an outfielder whose is perhaps one of the best in baseball in catching balls on the run, glided over to get a look at the fly ball. He didn't realize, or expect, was exactly how good a look he was going to get. Dodging the obstacles in the Rays' bullpen, the outfielder stuck his glove out just as he passed the second mound and before the wall.

Just moments before he looked up at the white roof, which often times with camouflage the ball. That was happening this time, except the ball was discovered just in time to give Drew an idea of where it was going to land. An idea, not an exact calculation.

"My game-plan was if it was around the mound, get behind it, make a throw. That’s why I was in the area of the ball," he explained. "That being said, how in the world I got over the mound into the chairs into the wall and all that kind of stuff … it was just one of those absolutely great plays in a situation where you need to let the ball drop."

But it didn't drop. It landed in Drew's glove, leaving the outfielder in an awkward position while trying to take a stab at nailing Pena tagging up from third.

"I really don’t know how I caught the thing," he said. "It’s kind of amazing to me. If I tried to make that play in a  situation with two outs and the game on the line, I probably wouldn’t be able to get to it. For some reason, the thing stuck in my glove.  

"I had every intention of letting the ball drop. Just instinct. Put the glove out right at the last second and it ended up in there."

The Red Sox would get the run back with a Victor Martinez home run in the eighth. But the Rays came back without the decisive two long balls, leading off innings. First it was B.J. Upton in the eighth (coming on Buchholz' 109th pitch), and then Johnson's blast against Scott Atchison.

Lots of drama. Lots of Red Sox disappointment.

Should he have caught the ball? How did he catch the ball? Even the time afforded all involved after the game didn't allow for the kind of definitive answers that would halt all debate.

"Running over there, I almost stopped running altogether," Drew said. "For whatever reason I kept going. How I got up and over the mound, and the ball out of the roof and it ended up in my glove ... literally I turn and threw the ball and I don’t know if you could read my lips on the camera, I go, 'How in the world did I catch that?' That was my first instinct, I don’t know how in the world I caught it."

Good intentions. Great catch. Terrible results.

If it doesn't add up then it maybe it does fit this season like a glove.

"As silly as that sounds," Drew explained, "I really didn't expect to catch it all."