Will Middlebrooks has some power

Will Middlebrooks is cultured. Who knew! On Sunday, he pulled the old "When in Rome" trick while the Red Sox were finishing up their series in Toronto, except instead of spreading classical culture, watching a gladiatorial bout, or partaking in the pleasures of the Roman bathhouse, he instead did things Canadian style: with a hat trick.

Sure, it's baseball, not hockey, but Middlebrooks is from Texas*. Three homers in one game is as close as he's going to get to hockey.

*I'm not kidding, either: there are three NHL players born in Texas, ever.

(Gifs at SB Nation now play when you hover over them, so don't be alarmed: the gif isn't broken, we just care about your computer's ability to not lock down and explode via gif.) His first homer doesn't look as impressive as the other two, but remember: he sent a knuckler the opposite way and cleared the wall with it. That takes some pop, if not as much as what he showed with the other two that can rightfully be called blasts.

Middlebrooks pulled the ball here, and it was one of those shots that you could tell, even with the reverse angle of NESN's camera feed, that it was gone the moment it left the bat. This was not R.A. Dickey's finest day, even without Middlebrooks taking him yard twice, but these two bombs did not help.

Last, we've got Middlebrooks third homer of the day, off of Dave Bush, who mercifully relieved Dickey before homers signaled his own exit. This one is another pull shot on a pitch that broke a little too far inside for Bush's liking. It then broke to left center field, but missed the stands, unlike the second decker he hit before.

Sadly, we don't have a fourth homer to show you, as he flew out to the warning track in his last attempt. In a way that's good, though, because then how was I supposed to make a tenuous connection to hockey and Canada in the intro? Middlebrooks is cultured and thoughtful.

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