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Red Sox: Top 10 most important home runs in team history

By Drew Athans

BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 10: David Ortiz #34 of the Boston Red Sox bats during the final at bat of his career during the eighth inning of game three of the American League Division Series against the Cleveland Indians on October 10, 2016 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 10: David Ortiz #34 of the Boston Red Sox bats during the final at bat of his career during the eighth inning of game three of the American League Division Series against the Cleveland Indians on October 10, 2016 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images) /
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LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 27: Mitch Moreland #18 of the Boston Red Sox hits a three-run home run in the seventh inning against pitcher Ryan Madson #50 of the Los Angeles Dodgers (not in photo) in Game Four of the 2018 World Series at Dodger Stadium on October 27, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 27: Mitch Moreland #18 of the Boston Red Sox hits a three-run home run in the seventh inning against pitcher Ryan Madson #50 of the Los Angeles Dodgers (not in photo) in Game Four of the 2018 World Series at Dodger Stadium on October 27, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images) /

Mitch Moreland’s Pinch-Hit Home Run

Accuse me of recency bias if you want, but Mitch Moreland‘s home run in Game Four of the 2018 World Series deserves to be on this list. The 2018 Red Sox had cruised to 108 wins and the AL East tile and after dispatching a pair of 100-win teams in the ALDS (Yankees) and ALCS (Astros), they faced off against the defending National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Red Sox had won the first two games in Boston and went into Dodger Stadium looking to take a stranglehold on the series. They led the epic Game Three 2-1 in the bottom of the thirteenth inning before Ian Kinsler‘s error allowed the Dodgers to tie it. The Sox would lose the game 3-2 in eighteen innings on Max Muncy‘s solo home run.

Failing to take a 3-0 series lead, the Red Sox were down late in Game Four and it looked like the momentum had shifted toward the Dodgers. When Yasiel Puig hit a three-run homer off of Eduardo Rodriguez in the sixth inning to put LA up 4-0, it seemed as though the series would be knotted by the end of the game.

The image of Rodriguez slamming his glove down as Puig rounded the bases with his arms in the air seemed to confirm that the winds of fate had shifted. In the top of the seventh, though, the Red Sox answered the call when Mitch Moreland hit a pinch hit three-run homer with two outs to cut the Dodger lead to 4-3.

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The Dodgers looked deflated and the Red Sox tied it in the eighth before putting up five runs in the ninth to win the game and take a 3-1 series lead. They’d go on to win the World Series in five games, but Moreland’s home run was the turning point; if he hadn’t sparked the Red Sox rally, the series would’ve been tied after four games and history may have been very different.

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