Did Darnell McDonald save Boston's season?

Is it a stretch to say that it's been such a tough start for the Orioles that now former O's first-round picks long since forgotten are now helping O's division rivals out of their doldrums? That is exactly what happened with Darnell McDonald and the Boston Red Sox earlier this week. Boston entered Tuesday's game with Texas at 4-9 and with five losses in a row. The Sox trailed 6-2 after five innings. But McDonald, called up from Triple-A earlier in the day, hit a pinch-hit, game-tying, two-run homer in the 8th and won it with a bottom of the ninth RBI single. Did Darnell McDonald turn around Boston's season? The Sox have now won three of their last four after Friday's win over the Orioles. I guess we could say the Orioles gave up on McDonald, who along with Jason Werth, were O's first-round picks in 1997. But so did Cleveland, Tampa, Washington, Minnesota and Cincinnati. Boston is McDonald's 7th organization. He began this year hitting .341 and slugging .683 in ten games for Pawtucket before his Tuesday call up. He had previously played just 68 games in the Majors - 17 with the 2004 O's, 4 with the Twins in 2007 and 47 last year with the Reds, batting .267-2-10. Perhaps we should feel good for McDonald, who has played in 1,328 minor league games since joining the Delmarva Shorebirds for the 1998 season. After all those games and teams he had a night to remember in the Major Leagues. He should get some props for that. By the way, McDonald also homered on Wednesday, becoming the first Sox player to homer in his first two games since Sam Horn in 1987. It's been going so rough for the O's that it seems one of their long, lost draft picks resurfaced just in time to get the Red Sox going a few days before the Orioles hit Fenway Park.