J.D. Drew: Perpetual Hero

In the words of Rob Iracane:

"Did Drew ever know that you're my hero?"

The Boston Red Sox slapped together an unbelievable rally from a 7-0 deficit to beat the surging Tampa Bay Rays 8-7 in Game 5 of the ALCS Thursday night.

With the Rays hanging onto a 7-0 pounding and Scott Kazmir having thrown six shutout innings, Fenway Park was morose. It started with rookie Jed Lowrie's double, followed by a two-out base hit by Coco Crisp before Dustin Pedroia’s single to right scored Lowrie, putting the Sox on the board and giving Boston a glimmer of hope.

Then stood David Ortiz at the plate, a looming monster, a slumping force. But still Big Papi. And he did what Big Papi does in these types of situations: he took a Grant Balfour fastball at his knees into the right-field bleachers. And that's where the rally really began. Suddenly, Fenway was reanimated.

Tampa closer Dan Wheeler attempted to shut it down in the eighth, but Jason Bay led off with a walk before your dashing hero J.D. Drew followed with a homer. The Rays' 7-0 lead had become a slim 7-6 margin with just an inning to go before they could punch their first ticket to the World Series. After our boyfriend, Mark Kotsay doubled to center field off B.J. Upton’s glove, Crisp worked a 3-2 count on Wheeler, fouling off what seemed like a hundred pitches until he drilled a single to right, scoring Kotsay to tie the game.

Holy smokes.

They fought and clawed and chewed their way back, holding their breaths through the top of the ninth until they had just three outs left to seal the deal. Drew worked the count to three balls, one strike, and swung for the fences. Now it's back to St. Petersberg for Game 6, scheduled for this Saturday at 8:07pm ET on TBS.

[The Big Lead] | [Surviving Grady] | [SOX & Dawgs]