2006 Red Sox Walk Offs

From SoSH

• 4/17 - On Patriot's Day, Mark Loretta hit a 2 run homer to left field against the Seattle Mariners' Eddie Guardado, when down by 1 with two outs in the ninth. Kevin Youkilis was on first base with a two-out single, and the Sox won 7-6.

• 6/11 - David Ortiz hit a 3-run homer to right field against the Texas Rangers' Akinori Otsuka, when down by 2 with two outs and two strikes in the ninth. Trot Nixon and Coco Crisp were on base and the Sox won 5-4.

• 6/24 - David Ortiz hit a 2-run homer to center field against the Philadelphia Phillies' Tom Gordon, when tied with one out in the tenth. Alex Cora was on first with a single and the Sox won 5-3.

• 6/26 - David Ortiz scorched a single to left-center field against the Philadelphia Phillies' Clay Condrey with the score tied in the 12th. Kevin Youkilis scored from second with the winning run to make it 8-7 . Craig Hansen, the Sox eighth pitcher of the game took over for Manny Delcarmen in the top of the twelfth with one out and Shane Victorino on second base. Hansen allowed the inheritted runner to score on a Jimmy Rollins double. In the bottom of the twelfth, Coco Crisp started off with a ground rule double and Kevin Youkilis singled to drive Coco home to tie the game.

• 7/29 - Big Papi once again willed his Boston Red Sox to victory, sparking a comeback with a mammoth blast into the centerfield bleachers, and unsurprisingly ending the game in walk-off fashion in extra innings. David Ortiz' legend grew even more with his fourth walk-off hit of the season, singling through the gaping hole on the left side of the Angels defense. Alex Gonzalez crossed home with the deciding run, after he singled and moved to second on a Kevin Youkilis single. Plenty had to happen to get Ortiz into the game-winning spot. Mike Lowell hit a two-run double in the 8th inning that tied the game at 6, and Manny Ramirez cut down Mike Napoli at the plate with a bullet from left in the 11th to preserve the tie.

• 7/31 - After the trading deadline came and went without a notable move, Red Sox Nation was beginning to question whether this 2006 Boston squad had the personnel necessary for a World Series run. Hope lied in the rotund figure of David Wells, coming straight off a two month stint on the DL, Boomer was going to take the hill against Cleveland. But to no surprise, it was another David that would make the difference.

Wells and Indians starter Paul Byrd proceeded to treat the Fenway Faithful to an offensive display, with Wells serving up two dingers to Casey Blake en route to eight earned runs. Byrd din't fare much better, allowing homeruns to Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and a Mass Turnpike shot to Wily Mo Pena, surrendering six runs. The score remained 8-6 Cleveland until the bottom of the ninth, thanks to the superb relief work from Kyle Snyder. Snyder was scheduled to start the game the following night, but was called upon when Wells started to falter in the early going. Kyle worked 4.1 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit. The effort would have been wasted if it wasn't for the man known as Big Papi. Alex Cora started the 9th inning with a beautiful slap basehit past the highly touted Andy Marte. Kevin Youkilis followed with a walk from rookie closer Fausto Carmona. After Youk, Mark Loretta popped up, thankfully keeping the bat in Ortiz' hands. Then in a 2-0 count, David Americo Ortiz let fly. Papi turned around a 97 MPH heater from Carmona and sent it schreeching into the center field bleachers for his fifth walk-off hit of the season and 15th of his Sox career. People are quickly running out of words for Ortiz' heroics, which are approaching levels of brilliance seen from only the greatest legends in baseball history.

Any lingering thoughts of the Sox' struggling pitching, recent injuries, and inability to pull of a deadline deal to bolster the team for a playoff push were instantly washed away with the magic of one man. In a three year span, David Ortiz' ability to deliver in the clutch has bordered on ridiculous, and with this most recent installment of the Papi Ortiz Super Happy Fun Hour, one swing erased any negativity a Sox fan could have had. At that moment, with Ortiz lacing a three run walk-off jack, all was right in the Nation, for 24 hours at least.

• 8/2 - In a most improbable comeback, Mark Loretta pulled Red Sox Nation off the edge of cliff with a walk-off 2 RBI double off much maligned Cleveland closer Fausto Carmona. The Indians jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first, but the Red Sox came back and took a 4-3 lead on homeruns by Manny Ramirez and Wily Mo Pena. Jon Lester was in position for the win before the game quickly turned again for the worse when Mike Timlin tossed a gopher-ball to Travis Hafner for a two-run homer that gave the Indians a 5-4 lead. Sox fans knew this game wasn't over, but it would take an interesting sequence of events.

Carmona struck out the first two Boston batters of the 9th on 7 pitches, and had Doug Mirabelli down to his last strike before plunking him in the side. Alex Gonzalez was then hit with the next pitch as well, forcing pinch-runner Gabe Kapler to second. After Kevin Youkilis worked a walk to load the bases, this game was there for the taking, especially with Papi awaiting on deck. But Patriot's Day hero Mark Loretta was taking back the spotlight on this night. Loretta's high fly ball hitting midway up the Monster was more than enough to score Kapler and Gonzalez with the deciding runs.

• 8/12 - The Red Sox trailed the Baltimore Orioles by four runs on two different occaisions in the game, and tied the score at 7 in the 6th on a two-run homer from Doug Mirabelli. That was the last of the scoring until the bottom of the tenth, when Manny Ramirez stepped to the plate with two men on. He grounded a pitch into left field for a single that would have loaded the bases, but left fielder Brandon Fahey couldn't scoop up the baseball, allowing Gabe Kapler to score the game-winner. The hit extended Manny's hitting streak to 27 games, although that streak would be broken the following day.

• 9/4 - A game where 1/3 of the starting lineup returned to action from the DL, and where Julian Tavarez provided a very good start. Carlos Pena came to the plate in the bottom of the 10th inning, and drilled a 2-1 pitch into the right field seats to give the Red Sox a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox.