Sandy Leon has mastered the art of nonchalantly tossing his mask to the home-plate umpire

How many times does something have to happen before it's considered a "pattern?" Two? Three?

For purposes of this tale, we'll say two. That's the number of times, after what transpired during the Red Sox's 5-3 victory over the Orioles on Tuesday, that Boston catcher Sandy Leon has teamed up with the home-plate umpire for an unorthodox and on-the-fly mask toss.

Drifting back behind the plate in pursuit of a popup, Leon tossed his mask aside -- as catchers do. And just as umpires do, Phil Cuzzi drifted with him a few feet away. What makes this fun, though, is that Cuzzi scooped up Leon's mask as if it was deliberately thrown to him:

Then again, maybe it was. Leon did this same thing with Jim Reynolds at Fenway Park a few weeks back:

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That's two times in less than a month. There's still plenty of time for this to happen again before the season comes to a close ... in which case it can irrefutably be referred to as a pattern or trend since, after all, the third time's a charm.