By Bob Hohler, Globe Staff, 5/5/2002
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.- The guy was scuffling through a 1-for-14 funk that landed him on the bench for the first time this season. He had gone hitless in all four pinch-hit opportunities in his major league career and he could remember getting no more than a single pinch hit in his baseball life, all the way back to Little League.
What's more, Shea Hillenbrand had never hit a grand slam. Ever. Not even in T-ball.
Yet there he was, Mr. April, summoned with two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth inning, his team trailing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 5-3, and everyone in Red Sox country hoping he could turn into Mr. May.
Moments earlier, Hillenbrand was told he would enter the game as a defensive replacement for Lou Merloni at third base if somehow the Sox could make magic out of the mess. Then manager Grady Little decided Hillenbrand might be able to help the team better at that juncture than Tony Clark.
Enter the unlikely pinch hitter.
''A lot of stuff is going through your mind right there,'' said Hillenbrand, who moved slowly and methodically toward the batter's box as if he were stalling for time. ''You go from being a cheerleader to being a part of a team trying to come back. You really have to change gears. I just wanted to make sure my mind was clear and set before I stepped in the box.''
To the great glee of Sox fans, it turns out Hillenbrand was more ready for the challenge than Tampa Bay's righthanded reliever, Victor Zambrano, who threw him three straight balls, then a called strike.
''Once it got to 3 and 0 , I knew I was in the driver's seat,'' Hillenbrand said. ''I knew he had to come at me. He wasn't going to throw sliders or anything like that. It felt good.''
How good? Hillenbrand sent the next pitch - a fastball on the inside part of the plate soaring more than 12 stories into the mausoleum of a ballpark they call Tropicana Field. As left fielder Jason Tyner appeared to set up to catch the ball- and end the game - on the warning track, Hillenbrand's shot whacked the catwalk 120 feet above the field for a ground-rule home run.
''It's incredible,'' he said of his game-winning shot, the first pinch-hit grand slam by the Sox since Rich Gedman took Willie Hernandez of the Tigers deep Aug. 10, 1986, when Hillenbrand was still in grade school. ''It's still kind of foggy to me.''
Little already had used three straight pinch hitters in the inning - Trot Nixon (fly out), Brian Daubach (double), and Carlos Baerga (walk) - before Nomar Garciaparra doubled and Manny Ramirez was walked intentionally to load the bases for Clark.
The switch-hitting Clark was batting .171 against righthanders, Hillenbrand .281.
''That's a very tough move to make, when I know in my heart that the only way Tony Clark is going to get going is to get a big hit in a situation like that,'' Little said. ''But the way things were rolling there, I thought our best chance to win the game was with Hilly.''
Clark, who had singled and walked in four trips, offered no protest when he was called back to the dugout.
''I was surprised they pinch hit for Tony,'' Hillenbrand said, ''because he had some real good at-bats today.''
But after Sox closer Ugueth Urbina fanned Felix Escalona for the final out, Clark was the first player out of the dugout to congratulate his teammates.
''It's not about me,'' Clark said. ''It's about winning ballgames, if one piece of the puzzle fits better than another piece. Shea's been swinging the bat well and he got a big hit. If at the end of the game, we're shaking hands, I can sleep at night. I'm fine.''
So was Hillenbrand, who acknowledged that frustration had begun to set in as his torrid pace in April (.341 with five homers and 23 RBIs) began to cool. As he ran the bases, he watched his towering shot and wondered.
''I thought it was out when I hit,'' he said, ''but I looked out at Jason Tyner and when he was standing on the warning track, I second-guessed myself.''
Tyner saw it differently. ''It was going to be a home run,'' he said. ''I lost it. That's why it looked like I might catch it. I saw it just before it hit the scaffolding. It was going out.''
So it was that Hillenbrand, who said he was such ''a Punch and Judy hitter'' as a kid that he never could have hit a grand slam, helped the Sox' juggernaut conquer another goal by doing the nearly unfathomable. And he couldn't help but wonder if he had blasted his way out of his minislump.
''You never know,'' said Hillenbrand, a student of baseball's fantastically fickle nature. ''[Today] I can go out and go 0 for 4 with four K's.
But this much is certain. He will be off the bench and back in the starting lineup.