Jacoby Ellsbury was already among the leading candidates for AL MVP award. Sunday he may have cemented its place as the top.
His two home runs in the first game of a day-night double-header was impressive enough, given the vaulted him into uncharted territory as the first Boston Red Sox's player to reach 30-30 combo in home runs and steals in the same season.
But of course, the final stroke - came in the nightcap, when Ellsbury three-run blast off Scott Proctor in the 14th round as the winning margin in the Red Sox's 7-4 victory over - and the device could have saved Boston season New York Yankees.
A loss would have dropped Boston into a tie with Tampa Bay Rays for the wild card and further demoralized a team that can not seem to do anything right, since its September 6 to 18 records and 17 errors in 12 games testify.
As the Red Sox have a one-game lead into their final series of the year at Camden Yards against the Baltimore Orioles, as they have defeated nine of 15 times.
"It's huge," second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. "Many people wrote to us and we will play hard."
Rays host the Yankees the next three nights.
Yankees won easily the opener of a double-header that showed up several MVP candidates from the AL RBI leader Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano have a convincing case for the Yankees and Ellsbury and Adrian Gonzalez for the Red Sox.
Among those calling for Ellsbury the brightest of the FAR. He went a combined 5-for-11 with three runs and five RBI on the day.
"This was a huge win," Ellsbury said after five hours, 11 minutes nightcap, which was closed at 11:43. "It allows us to control our own destiny. We know that if we win out, we are in. So we do not scoreboard watch or anything like that.''
Ellsbury leads majors in total bases with 356, and the five-RBI day gave him 103 for the season despite the fact that all but 39 of his 646 at-bats have come out of the leadoff spot.
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