Number Twenty-Six: David Ortiz.

On January 22, 2003 David Ortiz signed with the Red Sox. That year, he blossomed. Could it have been the drugs? Probably. I'm not naive enough to say that a man who came from nothing and saw opportunity slipping away when he was released by the Twins, could turn things around with a few tweaks to his batting stance. But he has been tested repeatedly under the new regimen and has always come out clean and his batting stance is important; when a little thing is off, the whole thing goes wrong.

For a post season home run there haven't been many people more valuable than David:

2003 ALCS
October 8: Two run home run off of Mike Mussina in the fourth inning to make the score 2-0.
October 16: Home run off of David Wells in the eighth to make the score 5-2. But the less said about that game the better.

2004 ALDS
October 8: Two run opposite field walk off home run off Jarrod Washburn in the tenth to complete the sweep of the Angels.

2004 ALCS
October 17: Two run walk off in the twelfth inning off Paul Quantrill to start the comeback.
October 18: Not a home run but brought in the first run of the game with a single off of Mike Mussina and scored the second run when Mussina walked Varitek with the bases loaded. Bottom of the eighth, he hit a home run off Tom Gordon to bring the Sox back within one. And the bottom of the fourteenth, with two out and two on Ortiz singled in a run to keep them around one more day.
October 20: Two run home run in the first inning off of Kevin Brown.

He was the series MVP.

2004 WS
October 23: A bottom of the first three-run home run off of Woody Williams.
2005 ALDS
October 7: Ortiz hit of first of three home runs given up by Freddy Garcia (Manny had the other two) but it wasn't enough to save the team from being swept by the White Sox.

2007 ALDS
October 3: Two-run home run off John Lackey in the bottom of the third.
October 7: Top of the fourth, a home run off of Jared Weaver to start the scoring.

2007 ALCS
October 16: Wake imploded in the fifth inning and Manny Del didn't help out too much (7 runs between them) but Youkilis hit a home run to start off the sixth, David followed it up with one of his own, and Manny followed suit for the three runs the Sox got that day.

2008 ALCS
October 16: Once more on the verge of elimination, David came through again. The Rays' were leading by seven when their bullpen, which had been a strength during the season, suddenly started taking on water in the bottom of the seventh inning. Lowrie doubled and then scored on a single by Pedroia and then David hit a three-run home run to make the score 7-4.

And that's all she wrote.