Though the announcement wasn't a shock to anyone, it was still a sad Monday for Red Sox fans as longtime second baseman Dustin Pedroia officially retired. Dealing with lingering knee issues, the former MVP played in just nine games between 2018 and 2019 and didn't play at all in 2020.
While those three years probably cost the four-time All Star a realistic shot at the Hall of Fame, he'll go down as one of the fiercest competitors that Boston has ever had. In honor of No. 15 hanging up his cleats, here are the 15 best moments of his incredible career.
15) 13-pitch at-bat (5/2/11): If a single at-bat can describe a career, this one fits Pedroia perfectly. Facing All-Star Jared Weaver and the Angels, Pedroia worked a 13-pitch at-bat with two men on, fouling off eight pitches in the process. It ended with a two-run single in a game the Sox would win 9-5.
14) Double steal (8/9/14): Another play against the Angels, this time in the 14th inning of a tie game. At this point in the year the Sox were 51-65 and would actually lose the game in 19 innings. Alas, Pedroia, who said on Monday from Little League onward he never took a play off, didn't here. With David Ortiz batting, Pedroia stole second and, with the shift on against Papi, noticed no one was near third, so he popped up and went to third, too. Despite never being overly fast, Pedroia did steal at least 20 bases four times.
13) All the defensive plays! The four-time Gold Glove winner could be a wizard at second base, making countless highlight-worthy plays in his career. You can pick any number of them for this list, but Pedroia going to his left was unmatched. Just look at the robbery of Mark Teixeira at the 2:51 mark of the video below.
12) The rookie goes 5-for-5 (6/15/07): After an uninspiring cameo at the end of 2006 and a bad start to 2007, many wondered if Pedroia had the bat to stick in the majors. On May 1 of that year he was hitting just .172... and then he turned it around in a big way. He batted .415 in May and never really cooled off from there, finishing the year batting .317 and winning Rookie of the Year honors.
His best game came in June against the Giants, when he went 5-for-5 with five RBIs, hitting a two-run homer off Barry Zito, a RBI single and a two-run double in a 10-2 Boston romp.
11) Walk-off single (6/19/10): While Pedroia never hit a walk-off home run in his career, he did have a couple of game-winning hits. We'll start in 2010 against the Dodgers, when Pedey drove home Daniel Nava with a walk-off single to right.
10) Walk-off single Part 2 (6/12/17): Pedroia's next walk-off RBI wouldn't come until nearly seven years later, when the Sox and Phillies were tied in the 11th. About six weeks after his fateful collision with Manny Machado, Pedroia won it for Boston with a single to right. After hurting his knee in April against Baltimore, Pedroia would go on to hit over .300 the rest of the season despite his painful injury that ultimately ended his career.
9) Multi-HR game 2008 ALCS: The defending champion Red Sox would lose a seven-game contest against Tampa Bay in the ALCS, and they'd even lose Game 2 despite Pedroia's big game in his MVP season. But his only multi-home run postseason performance is list-worthy nonetheless, as the Laser Show hit a pair of leadoff home run against Scott Kazmir in what would ultimately be a 9-8 Rays win in 11 innings.
8) Game-winning RBI vs. Rays (7/17/11): For 15 innings the Sox and Rays played a scoreless baseball game. Finally Pedroia changed that in the top of the 16th, driving in Josh Reddick with a two-out base hit to lift Boston to a 1-0 victory in Tampa Bay. After the game Josh Beckett would dub Pedroia "The Muddy Chicken", a nickname that briefly stuck before The Laser Show took back over.9/
7) Go-ahead home run (7/31/16): Yet another highlight against the Angels (he only hit .273 lifetime against them, but made them count), the Sox were down 3-1 with two outs in the top of the ninth with Pedroia at the plate. His go-ahead three-run homer off Huston Street lifted Boston to a 5-3 win in a division winning season.
6) Pedroia keeps the no-no intact (9/1/07): All Red Sox fans remember Clay Buchholz's no-hitter against Baltimore in his second career start. But that no-no never happens if it weren't for another rookie helping the pitcher out. In the seventh inning a dangerous ball off the bat of Miguel Tejada looked destined for centerfield, before Pedroia dove to his right, snared it and made the throw to keep the no-hitter intact.
5) Hitting his 100th HR in style (5/2/14): Pedroia only hit 140 home runs in his career, four of which were grand slams. He celebrated his 100th homer, however, with some flair, hitting a grand slam off Ryan Cook in a 7-1 Boston victory.
4) Terrorizing the Rockies (6/24/10): Pedroia would have bigger moments against Colorado, but his best single-game performance also came at the Rockies' expense in 2010. In a 13-11 Boston victory, Pedey went 5-for-5 with three home runs, including a go-ahead shot in the eight and the game-winning two-run blast in the top of the 11th. It would be his only career three home run game.
3) Game 7 heroics, 2007 ALCS: Down 3-1 in the series, Boston came back to force a Game 7 against Cleveland in 2007, and Pedroia was the centerpiece of the 11-2 romp. Up 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh, the Rookie of the Year extended the lead with a two-run shot into the Monster Seats. Then in the eighth he helped put the game away for good with a three-run double.
2) Welcome to the World Series: After helping the Sox win the ALCS, Pedroia batted leadoff in Game 1 of the World Series against the Rockies. In the bottom of the first he took the second pitch of the game from Jeff Francis to the Monster Seats to give Boston an early 1-0 lead in what would become a four-game sweep. Later in the series, legend has it a security guard in Colorado tried to deny Pedroia entrance into the clubhouse, asking who he was. Pedroia's response? "Why don't you go to the locker room and ask Jeff Francis".
1) All-out hustle (8/15/17): The last great moment in a phenomenal career, no play better encapsulates Pedroia's traits - hustle, smarts, instincts - than his effort against the Rangers in 2017. In the ninth inning of a tie game, Craig Kimbrel threw away a Carlos Gomez swinging bunt. The ball caromed off the wall in foul territory and bounced to the foul line, where Pedroia somehow knew to be as he grabbed the ball on a barehand, threw to first as he was falling and caught Gomez for the out. Perhaps no one else in baseball at the time makes that play -- Pedey did.
