The Red Sox came back from an 0-5 deficit in the bottom of the ninth to win, 6-5, yesterday at Fenway for a Mother's Day special. The rally started with one out and then O's catcher Ramon Hernandez dropped a Coco Crisp popup for an error. Six runs, three hits (including two doubles), three walks (one intentional), one out, two pitchers, and one additional error later, Boston won.

It was just the ninth time in baseball history that a team trailing in the ninth by at least five runs came back to win the game. The last time it happened was April 29, 1979, when the visiting Cubs scored six runs in the top of the ninth to defeat the Braves, 6-5. The Cubs got their first two men on (Dave Kingman singled and Steve Ontiveros walked) but were then on the ropes after two straight fly balls to second baseman Glenn Hubbard by Jerry Martin and Gene Klines. A walk to Ted Sizemore to load the bases brought the hook for Braves starter Larry McWilliams. Gene Garber, the man the greatest delivery in baseball history, gave up to straight singles (to Tim Blackwell and Larry Biitner) to run the score to 5-3 and then served up a homer to Bobby Murcer to put the Cubs ahead to stay, 6-5.

The last time a home team overcame a five-run deficit in the ninth was July 24, 1978 when the Astros beat the Expos, 6-5 with all their runs coming in the ninth. The Expos were leading 4-0 at the start of the ninth when Ken Forsch replaced Mark Lemongello to mop up the last inning. Forsch, the eventual winning pitcher, allowed a Tony Perez single, hit Larry Parrish with a pitch, walked Gary Carter intentional after a groundout to load the bases, and finally a Chris Speier single to plate the fifth Montreal run. The 'Stros led off the bottom of the ninth with a Rafael Landestoy walk—take that Speier!—, a Terry Puhl single, and an Enos Cabell double to score their first run. Darold Knowles replaced Mike Garman and allowed a run on a sac fly by pinch-hitter Jesus Alou. After Bob Watson walked and Art Howe struck out, the Astros came within one run of Montreal after two straight singles. Knowles was lifted for Gerry Pirtle (who?) after the Expos failed to get an out on a Bruce Bochy fielder's choice, the bases were loaded. Landestoy then singled home the tying and winning runs—Die Speier!—for a 6-5 two-out victory.

The only time a larger deficit was overcome in the ninth (with no runs for the home team) was August 22, 1947 when the Tigers beat the Senators 7-6 on seven ninth-inning runs.

Here are the greatest ninth-inning comebacks from a previously scoreless home team. The Red Sox's was just the sixth comeback of five or more :

There were two other ninth-inning deficits of six runs overcome by a team with no runs, but the other two were visiting clubs. Here are the previous comebacks of five or more runs:

Now, before anyone points out that the Dodgers beat the Padres 6-5 April 30 of last year after trailing 5-0 in the ninth, but the Dodgers took two innings to do it. They tied the game in the ninth and won it in the tenth. The Reds had a five-run comeback in the ninth last year as well (July 6) but ended up losing to the Braves in the tenth. The Twins also had an eighth-inning comeback of five runs to tie the M's last June 7 but lost in eleven.

Finally, the greatest ninth-inning comeback by a home team was on April 25, 1901 (opening day) when the Tigers beat the old Milwaukee Brewers (now the Orioles) 14-13 after entering the bottom of the ninth trailing 13-4. The Tigers ended up sweeping four games from the Brewers by a combined score of 45 to 38. The Brewers ended up 48-89 and moved to St. Louis the next year. Here are the comebacks by a home team of at least five runs: