Instant redemption

One of the things that makes baseball great is the potential for anyone to be the hero on any given night. On the basketball court, there are 1 or 2 guys on each team that will get the final shot or make the final pass. On a football team, you've got a running back, a couple of wide receivers and a quarterback.

In baseball, it's whoever's turn it happens to be. Because that's just the way baseball works. You might get Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz up in the 9th, you might get Darren Lewis and Jeff Frye. In 1999, for example, Jeff Frye hit 1 HR in 114 AB for the Red Sox. Darren Lewis hit 2 HR in 470 AB. It's hard to think of something less likely than Lewis and Frye hitting back-to-back. But's that just what happened on June 14, in a home game against the Twins. And they came in the 9th inning. With 1 out and the Red Sox trailing by 1, Darren Lewis hit a ball into the screen to tie it. And Jeff Frye followed with another ball into the screen to win it for Boston.

Well, tonight's win wasn't that unlikely, but it was pretty amazing nonetheless. Kevin Millar has been a punching bag for Boston fans, as he entered Monday's game homerless in the team's first 31 games. He broke that string last night, but had an awful night tonight. The A's scored 1 run on the first when Millar chose to throw home instead of starting a double play, and threw wildly. In the 7th, he took a throw from Arroyo and threw home too late to catch Bobby Kielty with the go-ahead run. That wasn't really his fault, but he failed to touch first and at least record the out. It ended up not hurting them, but he'd had a bad night, both in the field and at the plate.

Until the 9th. With 1 out, and Ortiz, who'd walked, at first, he faced Oakland closer Octavio Dotel, and hit the 2-2 pitch on a line into the Monster seats to win the game. Goat-to-hero, total time elapsed: about 1.5 seconds.