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Red Sox and a raucous crowd welcome Astros for ALCS Game 5

Is another Fenway epic in store?

1 minute to read

The last two opportunities Fenway Park has had to host the fifth game of an American League Championship Series have produced a pair of epics. The most recent came in 2008, when J.D. Drew’s walk-off single capped a season-saving stunner that saw the Red Sox rally all the way past the Rays after trailing 7-0 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. That was a spectacular night — though, still, it pales in comparison to the legendary Game 5 staged four years before that, when the Nation gritted its teeth through 14 innings on a stressful fall evening before David Ortiz dumped a single to center, Johnny Damon scored, and the Sox headed back to New York to finish off one of history’s greatest comebacks. It’ll be tough for this latest tilt to outdo those others, but with the way America’s Most Beloved Ballpark has been rocking this postseason, and with the potency of the Sox and Astros’ offenses, it wouldn’t at all be surprising for this to become another tense, hang-on-every-pitch battle that yet again comes down to a big, clutch hit in the late innings.