On Tuesday morning, Darnell McDonald and Josh Reddick were members of the minor league Pawtucket Red Sox, hoping for that call to the bigs that could kick-start their major league careers.
By late Tuesday night, both outfielders not only were in uniform for the parent club, they were instrumental parts of a come-from-behind 7-6 victory that stopped Boston’s five game slide.
Reddick, playing for injured center fielder Mike Cameron, dropped a 2-RBI double behind Texas left fielder Josh Hamilton in the sixth inning that cut the Sox deficit to 6-4.
But it was McDonald, a 31-year-old playing his 13th season of organized ball subbing for Jacoby Ellsbury, who made the biggest splash of the evening.
Pinch hitting for Reddick in the 8th, McDonald delivered a two run homer that tied the game, then added a Wall-scraping, bases loaded walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th that resulted in him being mobbed by his new teammates in the infield.
Talk about making a good first impression.
It was a game that the Sox should have lost based on the way they played. And if they were playing a club that wasn’t as awful as Texas -now losers of five straight themselves – Boston would not have won.
Not this edition of the team.
Tim Wakefield continued a stretch of Sox starters sucking, allowing six earned runs on seven hits and five walks while throwing 114 pitches in six innings. He also threw tossed two wild pitches, hit a batter and committed a balk. Ugh. Lee.
And Victor Martinez (3-4, R, BI) continued his embarrassing play behind the plate as Texas stole a team-record 9 bases, including one on a pitch out and two in one inning by noted 78-year-old speedster Vlad Guerrero.
Boston’s offense was in slumber mode again, totalling two runs on four hits through the first five innings, while Ranger batters were circling the bases like the Roadrunner on speed.
But the Sox kept chipping away against five Texas pitchers, and when Reddick hit a towering fly that swirled around left field, eluded Hamilton and landed on the track in front of the Monster to plate Martinez & Hermida, suddenly the Sox were back in the game, setting the stage for McDonald’s heroics.
After pinch hitter Jason Varitek doubled with one out in the 8th, McDonald clubbed a 2-2 pitch from Darren Oliver over the Monster to tie the game at six. It was his third career homer, all coming since last August.
The 9th inning had all the drama of a postseason game, and it felt like it, with Boston desperate for a win and smelling blood.
A fluky play ignited the rally, as Youk lined a shot off reliever Frankie Francisco’s (that’s fun to say) arm that resulted in a base hit. A passed ball got Youk to second, so Bill Hall’s sac bunt actually put the winning run on third with one out.
After Mike Lowell, who earlier pinch hit for David Ortiz in a seminal moment in Big Papi’s Sox career, was intentionally walked, Adrian Beltre popped out and then Tek drew a walk to load em up for the newest Red Sox folk hero.
As the ball rocketed off McDonald’s bat, nearly everyone thought he had a walk-off grand slam. Instead the ball skimmed off the Monster, and Youk scored as Hamilton went ass-over-teacup, igniting a player pig pile near second base that rivaled any playoff postgame celebration.
And so a star was born on a night when it looked like epitaphs would be written for this maddening, underachieveing team. Will this be the spark that sends the club off on a winning streak, or at least rights the Sox ship that had been retaining more water than Kirstie Alley? Who knows.
But for one night in April, as the Celtics were crushing the Miami Heat across town and the Bruins were basking in the glow of a fantastic playoff victory against Buffalo the night before at the Garden, the Sox were able to recapture some of that championship mojo and appease the grumpy Nation.
Let’s see what they do for an encore tonight.
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