Jason Bay (front row, fifth from left) is now officially the best player to emerge from this Little League team.

Jason Bay just made the 1990 Canadian Little League World Series team very proud. With a runner on first and two outs, he took a first-pitch curveball (a pitch on which Lackey has dominated him this evening) but jumped on an 0-1 fastball down the pipe, crushing a two-run homer to left field to put the Sox ahead 2-1. 

Bay, you may recall, was described recently by Brendan Donnelly as the key to the Sox lineup in the playoffs. Right now, it looks like he’s up to the role.

It was the first go-ahead homer by the Sox when trailing in the sixth inning or later since Todd Walker hit a homer in Game 1 of the 2003 ALDS against Oakland. It’s also just their third such roundtripper in franchise history (hello, Dave Henderson). 

Prior to Bay’s two-out homer, David Ortiz popped meagerly to short on the first John Lackey offering he saw in the sixth inning, and has seen just seven pitches in his three plate appearances tonight. 

Following the quick out by Ortiz, Lackey walked Kevin Youkilis. It would appear that Youkilis is wearing the pants in the lineup these days–he walked 15 times in September, compared to 10 by Ortiz. Surprisingly, the team leader in free passes in September was Jed Lowrie, who walked 16 times. 

J.D. Drew’s timing is evidently still off. With Youkilis on first, he fouled a first-pitch fastball into the stands and then struck out on another heater over the middle of the plate. Through that moment, the Sox were 0-for-11 with runners on base. Bay improved that mark significantly.

Red Sox 2, Angels 1