Postseason baseball is filled with great moments. Quite often one moment of greatness can propel a team to glory.

In 2013, the Boston Red Sox looked down and out in the AL Championship Series against the Detroit Tigers. After being one-hit in a 1-0 loss to the Tigers in Game 1, the Sox were trailing 5-1 as they came to bat in the eighth inning of Game 2.

Doesn't matter what you haven't done before. It's what you do today in baseball and Jackie Bradley Jr., right, with Manager Alex Cora, delivered Sunday night. Associated Press/David J. Phillip

Down to their final four outs, David Ortiz delivered one of the greatest clutch hits the game has seen.

A first-pitch grand slam off Joaquin Benoit sent Torii Hunter into the bullpen and Fenway Park into delirium.

The Sox went on to win that series and ultimately the World Series. It was the second time in 10 years that Boston lost Game 1 of an ALCS, only to go on and win the championship.

So it was Sunday night in Boston, with the Sox down one game to none to the defending champion Houston Astros. Looking for that magic moment, the Sox got it from an unlikely source.

Jackie Bradley Jr. is a career .163 hitter in the playoffs who was 2 for 15 this postseason when he came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the third inning.

Before the game, Hall of Famer Jim Rice bumped into Bradley in the Red Sox clubhouse.

He stopped the center fielder and urged him to be ready to deliver.

“You can carry this team for a month at a time,” Rice told Bradley.

“Shorten that swing up and go the other way.”

That’s exactly what Bradley did. He slashed a 2-1 pitch from Gerrit Cole down the left-field line that hit off the wall and ricocheted back toward home plate. Xander Bogaerts and Steve Pearce scored to tie the game.

Then the home-field advantage came into play: The ball somehow stayed atop the padding along the short wall in foul territory, eluding the reach of Astros left fielder Marwin Gonzalez. Rafael Devers also scored, giving the Sox a lead they would never relinquish.

“I’ve never seen it ride the top of that little edge like that before,” said Bradley. “It’s pretty unique.”

Boston won 7-5 and evened the series at one win apiece. Just like that, the Sox had their first great moment of this ALCS.

There were other big moments as well, like Mookie Betts’ gift trip around the bases.

Betts, who had the best game of his playoff career, walked to lead off the seventh.

He advanced on a wild pitch, took third on a passed ball by catcher Martin Maldonado, and scored a big run on another passed ball that clanked off the catcher’s mitt.

Betts added one more run in the eighth with an RBI double – just the second run-scoring hit of his postseason career. The three-run cushion made Craig Kimbrel’s latest rocky ninth inning (two hits, a wild pitch, a run scored and a very long fly ball to end it) easier to take.

Make no mistake, the Astros accomplished what they wanted at Fenway Park, taking Game 1 and home-field advantage in the series.

Yet the Sox showed their resiliency again. They had done it all season, the only team not to lose more than three straight games. They’d only done that two previous times (1903 and 2013) and won the World Series each time.

Now they’ll have to continue that mindset in Houston, playing under the 2017 championship banner. They will no doubt feel much more confident after winning Game 2, a great moment in a record-setting season that has seen plenty of them.

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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