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MLB.com is digging back into its massive video vault to uncover classic plays that you have loved, forgotten about or, perhaps, are discovering for the very first time. Watch these moments and many, many more on the MLB Vault YouTube page.
Aug. 16, 2002: Ortiz’s homer off Pedro plants a seed
David Ortiz and Pedro Martinez will always be closely linked together thanks to their heroics for the mid-2000s Red Sox, but of course the two close friends weren’t always teammates. Big Papi hit 58 of his 541 career home runs in a Twins uniform, including one upper-deck blast off Pedro in a 2002 game at the Metrodome.
Ortiz would go on to say that this home run changed his career, as Martinez told Ortiz at dinner the following night that his ability to drive Martinez’s cutter in on the hands proved to the Boston ace that Ortiz was indeed a talented slugger. Martinez lobbied the Red Sox to sign Ortiz after Minnesota released him, and the rest was history.
Oct. 19, 2013: Pedroia’s clever double play
Shane Victorino will always be tied to Game 6 of the 2013 American League Championship Series, thanks to his seventh-inning grand slam that helped send the ‘Boston Strong’ Sox on to the World Series. But the Red Sox might have had a bigger deficit to overcome, if not for an underrated heads-up play by Dustin Pedroia during the prior inning.
The Tigers had just taken the lead and had runners on the corners with nobody out when Jhonny Peralta hit a ground ball to Pedroia at second. Pedroia faked a throw home to freeze Prince Fielder over at first base, a move that also froze Victor Martinez running right in front of him. Pedroia alertly tagged V-Mart with the ball in his throwing hand and then fired home, snaring Fielder in a rundown before catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia chased him all the way down the line for a double play. The Tigers left that golden opportunity without a run, setting up Victorino’s back-breaking slam.
Oct. 7, 1975: Yaz throws out Reggie
Come for the beautiful flashes of Oakland yellow and Boston red in early technicolor, and stay for this awesome outfield assist by Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski. A’s slugger Reggie Jackson tried to stretch a single into a double during the fourth inning of Game 3 of the 1975 ALCS, but Yaz had other ideas, cutting down Reggie with a bullet throw to second. Yaz’s assist came up big in the Red Sox’s 5-3 win that clinched an ALCS sweep and set up a World Series date against the Big Red Machine.