Dustin Pedroia has seen David Ortiz hit plenty of home runs, plenty of huge David Ortiz home runs.

He wanted to believe this was another one. He just wasn't sure.

"I knew he back-spun it, but it was a cold night," Pedroia remembered. "And I knew Torii [Hunter] was playing deep."

Pedroia was on first base. His two-out single off Al Alburquerque had loaded the bases for Ortiz, setting up what turned out to be the biggest hit of the series and maybe of the Red Sox's championship season.

"We were down one game in the series, and it was 5-1 at that point," Pedroia said. "That [Ortiz grand slam] changed a lot."

The Red Sox had been held to one hit in their Game 1 loss. Ortiz's home run in the eighth inning of Game 2 brought them back from a 5-1 deficit. They went on to win that one 6-5, then the ALCS in six games.

The run Pedroia scored on Ortiz's grand slam was the only time he crossed the plate in the ALCS. The Red Sox would win 1-0 in Game 3, 4-3 in Game 5 and 5-2 in the clinching sixth game. They hit .211 as a team in the World Series -- .169 if you take out Ortiz's 11-for-16 Series performance.

They were a team that needed to take advantage of every chance. They were a team that could have sunk if they hadn't taken advantage of the chance they had in the eighth inning of Game 2 against the Tigers.

But they did take advantage of it. David Ortiz took advantage. And Dustin Pedroia will never forget it.

-- Danny Knobler