Five Most Exciting Moments From the 2016 Red Sox Season

(The Associated Press)

The Red Sox are back on top of the American League East.  It’s taken a little longer for this one to sink in because of the way things ended last night.  But I’m over it now and man does it feel awesome.  This will be a very brief post but I wanted to shout out five really exciting moments from the 2016 season that put the Sox in the driver’s seat of the division.  Here we go:

5. Brad Ziegler strikes out the side with the bases loaded.

Ziegler had only been in Boston for about a month coming into this game so a lot of fans still weren’t sold on the value he brought to the bullpen.  But this gained a lot of trust and established Ziegler as one of the more reliable arms in the back end.  Just an awesome moment, especially against his former club.

4. Christian Vazquez CRUSHES one off Betances.

This was the first moment of the season that really caught my attention.  One of the relatively worst hitters on the lineup hits an absolute missile off one of the most intimidating pitchers in the game.  Surreal.

3. Dustin Pedroia knocks a go-ahead grand slam.

Every win is precious in September, especially when you rattle off 11 of them in a row.  The Sox were trailing late in the 10^th game of the streak, but Pedroia corrected that quickly and gave Rick Porcello his MLB-leading 22^nd win of the season.

2. Mookie Betts ties Texas in the 9^th.

Down to their last out in what could be a playoff preview, the Red Sox staged a comeback in the 9^th inning capped of by a two-run Mookie Betts home run.  Boston would eventually win the game. At the time Texas was seemingly the better team, and for the Sox to pull off that win was massive.

1. Hanley Ramirez ends the New York Yankees’ season.

I’ll be totally honest, coming into that series I was very nervous about the Yankees.  They were playing very good baseball, led by their rookie phenom Gary Sanchez.  Forget about the playoffs, the Yankees were in striking distance of the division despite having thrown in the towel halfway through the season.  But in the first of a four game series with New York at Fenway, Hanley capped off a dramatic five-run ninth inning with this rocket off Dellin Betances.  Since then the Yankees have come back down to earth.