Cry me a river.

Possibly the most engrossed witness to Boston catcher Ryan Hanigan’s miseries on Saturday — three passed balls, two runs scoring on one of them, on a strikeout — was Jays catcher Josh Thole.

“What was I thinking? Better him than me.”

Hanigan, of course, was the squatting sap — i.e. catcher — having conniptions trying to contend with winning knuckleball pitcher Steven Wright.

In truth, given his long history as personal catcher to R.A. Dickey — only other knuckler in the majors right now — Thole could empathize with Hanigan’s panicky pursuits of balls to the backstop, rattling around in foul territory, given his long history as personal catcher to Dickey.

“Oh yeah, it’s a grind back there. I know exactly how he was feeling. It’s all fun and games unless you’ve been back there in the trenches doing it. You can laugh at it, but when it’s happening to you and there’s nothing you can do about it, it’s not funny.”

Thole recalls the words of wisdom imparted to him by Doug Mirabelli who, for seven seasons, corralled Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball in Boston.

“Doug told me one time, ‘You’re going to lead the league in passed balls. Just deal with it.’ That’s what helped me. It’s the nature of the beast.’’

In fact, Thole does not lead the league in passed balls; Hanigan holds that distinction at the moment, with 17 so far this season while Thole is second with 11.

Never had two runs score on a passed ball, though. Thus far, Thole has escaped such a horror.

“Knock on wood. But I can imagine what he was going through. I’ve come in here (the clubhouse) after many games, just sat at my locker, thinking: ‘What the hell just happened?’ So I feel for (Hanigan). Steven’s ball is moving a lot right now, makes it even harder for him.”

Thole, who was Dickey’s personal receiver with the New York Mets before both came to Toronto, reminds that he “learned’’ to catch the knuckler — insofar as it’s a learned skill — during a two-month stint training session with Dickey at Triple-A in 2010.

“I had the opportunity to get a lot of the mistakes out of the way in the minors. You can hide there. You can’t hide on national television, especially in places like Boston and New York City. So he’s just sitting there, wearing it.”

Interesting, for all his familiarity with the knuckler, Thole could offer his teammates no tips on how to hit Wright.

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“No, because I’ve never been a good hitter off a knuckleball. I can only catch it.”

Except when he can’t.