Thread: Baseball
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Old 04-21-2010
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Sometimes all a slumping baseball team needs is a little spark, and it can come from the most unlikely place. Will that be the case for Boston going forward? It certainly happened last night against the Texas Rangers.

The Red Sox had no choice but to put two outfielders, Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron, on the Disabled List. Usually, Ellsbury is the team spark. He leads off, steals lots of bases, goes from 1st to 3rd routinely on steals, and goes 1st to home on singles. But he's out after a collision with Adrian Beltre last week.

So, the Red Sox, needing and outfielders, called up Josh Reddick from Pawtucket.

At the end of 5 innings, the Rangers were ahead 6-2. Tim Wakefield had been shaky. In the bottom of the 6th, though, Reddick hit a two-run double that put the team back in the game. It was in the bottom of the 8th, though, that the spark became a fire.

Darnell McDonald had also been called up from Pawtucket, though in a bit less definite way than Reddick (see below). An unlikely hero, and pinch-hitting for Reddick, he launched a homer into the Green Monster seats in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game. The Fenway Faithful, who have had little to cheer about of late, erupted!

McDonald stayed in the game, and he wasn't finished.

Jonathan Papelbon, who has also been shaky, came in to pitch the 9th, and held the Rangers. And then, in the bottom of the 9th, who would come to bat with men on base but Darnell McDonald. He nearly hit another homer, but instead his towering show fell short and scraped the left-field wall just out of reach of Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton. It was all that was needed, and the winning run came home.

The Red Sox have their first walkoff victory of the year, and Darnell McDonald's name is being celebrated throughout Red Sox Nation. He's no spring chicken; he's been a minor leaguer for 12+ years, coming up to "the show" for 17 games in 2004 with Baltimore, 4 with the Twins in 2007, and 47 with Cincinnati last year. But for the Red Sox, he had only been asked to get to town, wait in a hotel, and see whether Jacoby Ellsbury was okay after batting practice. The answer was Jacoby on the DL and McDonald to the ballpark, "just in case."

The rest is history.

Perhaps the spark will stay?
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