This Red Sox Moment ‘Burned Into Memory’ Of White Sox Pitcher

White Sox reliever Mike Vasil will get the chance to step onto the field at Fenway Park for the first time in his MLB career this weekend when the Boston Red Sox hosts Chicago for a four-game series.

And the memories certainly will come flooding back for the Wellesley, Mass., native who grew up a Red Sox fan.

One in particular stands out to Vasil, who had a seat inside the venerable ballpark alongside his father for an iconic Red Sox moment. Vasil was just a teenager when he witnessed David Ortiz’s October heroics with a monumental, game-tying grand slam in Game 2 of the 2013 American League Championship against the Detroit Tigers.

“That for me, that moment, will live with me for the rest of my life,” Vasil told NESN.com. “No one can take that away from me as a fan of the game, fan of the Red Sox as a kid. I’ll probably remember that moment as long as I live.”

Vasil and his father were lucky enough to score tickets when his dad’s friend couldn’t make it to the game. The two had a good vantage point with their seats tucked up along the first-base line.

Ortiz’s clutch homer came in the eighth inning with the Red Sox trailing, 5-1, and just four outs away from staring at a 2-0 series deficit. Ortiz grooved the first pitch he saw from Tigers reliever Joaquin Benoit and it ended with him taking a trot around the bases, Hunter and Boston police officer Steve Horgan combining for a legendary image and the Fenway Faithful, which Vasil was a part of, in a state of pandemonium.

“I’ll never forget when Tori Hunter flipped over the fence in right, that is something that’s literally burned into my memory,” Vasil said. “And I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ To this day, probably the loudest I’ve ever heard a stadium. Ever.”

The pivotal sequence was a catalyst for Boston’s playoff run as they went on to beat the Tigers in six games before capturing a World Series title over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Ortiz’s home run propelling the Red Sox to a championship came with even more significance for the team and for fans like Vasil given what the city of Boston went through that year with the Boston Marathon bombings.

“I get goosebumps to this day talking about it,” Vasil said. “That full year with the Red Sox and everything they did is just, if you grew up a Red Sox fan, it’s all a very emotional time.”