Dustin Pedroia has been the quietest .300 hitter in baseball.

The storylines around the 2016 Boston Red Sox have been consistent since the start of the season. David Ortiz and his farewell tour has been the headline story from Day One, and rightly so. Big Papi has done nothing to give up the spotlight with an MVP-worthy campaign that has fans from coast to coast staring in disbelief.

After Ortiz, the kids have banded together to capture our attention. Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts, and Jackie Bradley, Jr. – the Killer B’s – have had an excellent adventure and joined Ortiz in the starting lineup at this summer’s All-Star Game. The future is bright with this core of young players in uniform.

Of late, the need for more starting pitching has been the story we’ve been watching closely. And we’re not alone. President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski had most of his group together over the weekend in Anaheim, taking close stock of what the Sox have – and what they lack – in the rotation and bullpen.

Through it all, Pedroia continues to put on a laser show. His three-run home run with two outs in the ninth inning Sunday brought the Sox back from the edge of defeat and provided the team with its most improbable win of the season.

It was a stunning victory. If the Sox go anywhere this October, we will look back on the 5-3 win over the Angels the way we looked back on the Mother’s Day Miracle in 2007 and the Jason Varitek/Alex Rodriguez fracas in 2004.

After the homer Pedroia was hitting .304, and Manager John Farrell was saying “that’s hopefully the start of something” for his team.

Farrell had plenty of time to think about what he wanted to say to the media. He had been ejected in the fifth inning after home plate umpire Gabe Morales had heard just about enough from Pedroia following a called third strike. Pedroia didn’t like the call and let the ump know it. Farrell sprinted into the argument to deflect attention away from his second basement. The manager was quickly thrown out of the game, but he managed to keep his No. 2 hitter in the game. Later, that move paid off when Pedroia delivered in the ninth.

What was Pedroia saying to Morales?

“I just said, ‘Man, I’m only 5-foot-7,’ ” Pedroia told reporters in Anaheim. ” ‘I’m going to need a trampoline to hit that damned ball. What are we doing here? This is the major leagues.’ ”

No one is a more fierce competitor than a fired-up Pedroia. Arriving in spring training fully healthy for the first time in three seasons, he went about reclaiming his spot as one of the game’s most consistent hitters. He spent the past few seasons hearing criticisms that his production was in decline, that he was not the same player who won the MVP Award just one season after taking the Rookie of the Year title.

“I hear everything,” he once told me.

Yet we haven’t heard that much about Pedroia this year. He narrowly missed out on an All-Star appearance, and has been overshadowed by the gargantuan feats of Ortiz, as the DH says goodbye to baseball.

When Ortiz retires, this will be Pedroia’s team. Sunday served as a reminder the Red Sox will be in good hands. And this season those hands are healthy, adding a lot of production to the top of the Red Sox lineup.

Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN. His column appears in the Portland Press Herald on Tuesdays.

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