Deja vu: Ellsbury delivers in clutch again against Indians

Jacoby Ellsbury sent the fans home happy for the second-straight night. (Photo: Stuart Cahill, AP)

As he watched Jacoby Ellsbury walk to the plate with nobody on and two out in the ninth inning of a tie game my father said, “Jacoby, there is no one you can drive in but yourself.”

The Boston Red Sox center-fielder took a first-pitch strike right down the pipe from Cleveland Indians side-armed right-hander Joe Smith. “That was the pitch to hit,” my father said in frustration.

As it would turn out, the former Oregon State standout would get another, and promptly drive himself in.

The next pitch, another fastball over the heart of the plate came his way, and he put everything he had into it. The ball was crushed towards the deepest part of Fenway Park, 400-plus feet to dead center, and crept over the high wall. His arms thrust into the air as he rounded first, and the crowd erupted. What had happened couldn’t have been scripted better.

Boston had won 4-3, and for the second time in 24 hours Ellsbury was celebratory pummeled by his similarly jubilant teammates.

“We talked all spring about, ‘Well, he’s healthy, and he has that feel like he has something to prove, but he didn’t have a lot of at-bats last year,’ ” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “Not only has he not skipped a beat, but he’s taken it and just grown. You can see the confidence. It’s fun to watch.”

Ellsbury has been so good this year that when he’s 0-4, as he was entering the ninth-inning at-bat, he’s due for a hit in his fifth appearance. And it hasn’t been surprising when he has delivered. This consistency and dependability is a vast transformation from the player of years past who would go through significant and very frustrating lulls. Healthy after a injury-shortened, disappointing 2010 season, he has come into his own, finding his power stroke along the way to become one of the more dangerous hitters in baseball.

Francona agrees. “He’s been one of the better players in the league,” he said. “With men on base, with men not on base, he steals bases, he plays defense, he hits home runs. He’s turned into one of the better players in the league.”

Yet, up until this series against Cleveland, he hadn’t delivered in the clutchest of situations. “I didn’t know what to do when it went over,” Ellsbury said in regards to his game-winning homer off Smith. “Running around the bases, yeah, that was exciting. Obviously I haven’t experienced that in the big-leagues. It was fun.”

Tonight, the celebration after he finished rounding the bases was a bit less raucous than before. “They took it easy on me,” he said. “Both of them were fun. Clay [Buchholz] and I took a little spill yesterday, so today I took the helmet off and didn’t take quite the pounding on the head.”

Not everyone would hold back in celebration. Kevin Youkilis made sure he would feel the best of all pains in the morning, making the most out of a first for the 27-year-old. Judging by Ellsbury’s play and confidence, his second game-winning hit won’t be the last.

“Ells has always been a superstar to me,” David Ortiz said. “He plays the game like a superstar. That’s the reason why this organization has waited for a while — because they believe in what he’s got, what he can do, and he’s coming through like they expected.”

“It’s just incredible what he can do,” added Adrian Gonzalez. Equipped with every tool Boston could ask for, it certainly is.