And those fans certainly knew his name by the time he came to bat in the ninth, with the bases loaded and two outs. They stood for him then, hoping and praying he could halt Boston’s five-game losing streak, and six-game skid at home. He did. McDonald’s high drive scraped the wall, sending Kevin Youkilis home for a much-needed 7-6 win.
“I wanted to be the hero tonight,’’ said McDonald. “I wanted to come through. I know the team has been struggling a little bit. When I came up here, any opportunity I got, I wanted to be a spark. I didn’t think it was going to happen like this.’’
His single, the one that left him in the middle of joyous, ecstatic, destructive chaos, left McDonald nearly bloodied. He was tackled in front of second base, the crowd of happy players moving all the way to short left field before ending in a pile on the ground. They were, in a word, thrilled.
“Hopefully I’ll be able to play tomorrow,’’ McDonald said. “They beat me up pretty good. When I seen [Jonathan] Papelbon running out there, I tried to run away. Somebody got a hold of me.’’
Though not everyone quite made it to the celebration. As Varitek said, smiling, “I couldn’t ever catch up to it. I was too slow to catch up to the pile.’’
No matter. It was an essential win that left the clubhouse emotional afterward. They knew exactly how important this was.
“There was some poetic justice, however you want to put it,’’ manager Terry Francona said. “I don’t care how we did it. We desperately needed to win a game, and we found a way to win.’’
“It was a huge win for us,’’ Tim Wakefield said. “It was a huge positive step for us to come back in that game and win, especially in the fashion that we did. The guys never gave up. A lot of heart and a lot of desire . . . Darnell, unbelievable.’’
