There are these kind of moments in every season. Those "remember when ..." kind of moments.
A couple of seasons ago it might have been Willie Harris throwing out Tampa Bay's Joey Gathright at home to end the game. Or Devern Hansack's five-inning no-hitter on the final game of the regular season.
Or perhaps you recall one of last year's instances, such as when Brandon Moss helped the Red Sox win their season-opener in Japan by sending the game into extra innings with a ninth-inning solo home run.
And then there is Jonathan Van Every, a player who has now officially made his mark on two successive seasons thanks to his role in the Red Sox' 6-5 win over the Indians, Wednesday night at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
If nothing else, Van Every can stake a claim to leading off our "Five Things We Learned ..." at least once in the 2009 season, with that moment coming right now:
VAN EVERY IS ALL ABOUT THE GAME-WINNERS
This is what people scrambling to find out everything about the player who won Wednesday night's game for the Red Sox with a 10th-inning solo home run probably discovered about Van Every:
- He was born on Nov. 27, 1979 in Greenwood, Miss.
- He attended Itawamba Community College and was taken by the Cleveland Indians in the 2000 draft in the 29th round.
- He played in the Indians' organization from 2001-07, hitting 21 home runs for Single-A Kinston in '04.
- He signed with the Red Sox as a minor league free agent on Dec. 1, 2007, in large part because of his history with Sox pitching coach, and former Cleveland farm director, John Farrell, and current Red Sox farm director Mike Hazen, another past member of the Indians' front office.
- He made his major league debut on May 14, 2008, singling in his second big-league at-bat.
Now, what might have escaped your attention is that Van Every is developing a nice little trend when it comes to winning ballgames.
Walking through the dugout on the day he was brought to the Red Sox' big-league team this season, Van Every was congratulated on the walk-off grand slam he had launched for the Pawtucket two days before in his first game back from an ankle injury.
"Yeah," he said with the smile that hadn't left since crossing home plate at McCoy Stadium, "I wish they all could be like that."
As it turns out, they haven't all been like that, but the outfielder has had his fair share.
Some will remember Van Every's previous "moment" with the Red Sox, coming on the final day of the regular season last year when his single against the Yankees provided the Sox with a walk-off win.
But get a load of this: The Red Sox have won in their final at-bat in three of the four games in which Van Every has appeared this season, and the Sox have claimed victories in their final at-bat in five of the lefty hitter's 15 big-league games.
The latest? His first career home run, which just so happened to come off a change-up from his former roommate in Akron, Cleveland reliever Jensen Lewis, and completed yet another comeback win for the Sox.
And this time, while playing right field while J.D. Drew's quad heals, Van Every sprinkled some defensive magic into the equation. In the eighth inning, after the Red Sox had come back from five runs down to tie the game with three in the eighth, Van Every laid out to make a diving catch on the rubber warning track in foul ground on a Ryan Garko pop-up.
ELLSBURY CAN HIT WITH TWO STRIKES
A big reason Van Every was able to extend his string of heroics was because of Jacoby Ellsbury, whose eighth-inning, two-out single scored Jeff Bailey (who was playing while Kevin Youkilis recovered from a sore side after being hit by a pitch Tuesday night) tied the game at 5-5.
Ellsbury, who finished with three hits, has now gotten on base in 13 of his last 14 games, and leads the league with 10 stolen bases. His batting average stands at .289, while his on-base percentage is .323 (17th among regular leadoff hitters in the majors).
But what truly stood out in Ellsbury's eighth-inning at-bat was his continued ability to hit with two strikes, or in this case, on an 0-2 count. The outfielder is now 4 for 10 when putting the ball in play on 0-2 counts this season, and hitting .300 when getting to two strikes.
Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan had explained in spring training that
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