ANAHEIM, Calif. — When same-day callup Darnell McDonald hit his dramatic game-tying home run and game-winning single on April 20, helping kick-start the Red Sox’ season, it was a great moment. People knew who he was. He spoke at dinners, he gave interviews. He told his story of 13 years in the minor leagues, waiting for a chance.

Now it’s three months later, and McDonald has been a valuable member of the Red Sox, helping to keep them afloat through a season filled with injuries.

He’s a major leaguer now, a player who may not be a long-term starter, but one who has proven that he’s more than just minor league depth. At 31, he has finally done things that he was forecast to do as a big-time prospect at age 18 – proving it to everyone else, and yes, to himself.

“It takes a while to say, ‘Hey, I’m a big league player. I can play here,’ ” McDonald said, sitting in the plush field-level seats reserved for Angels’ bigwigs before Tuesday’s game in Anaheim.

McDonald has played all over the outfield this year. He’s hit .257 with six home runs and 25 RBI, while playing every day and facing right-handed pitching, his longtime weak spot.

Yet the future remains uncertain for McDonald. There’s a chance that he could be a casualty when Jacoby Ellsbury returns in a few weeks, though there are many ways he could also stick on the 25-man roster until rosters expand in September; he can jump in anywhere defensively, and he’s a good pinch-hitter.

Even if he does last the entire season, what comes next year?

“Hopefully I’ll be here,” McDonald said, effusive in his praise of the Red Sox organization. “I want to be here. From day one it’s been a dream come true. You can imagine working 13 years to obtain something, and to be able to come here and be able to contribute — it’s just a great feeling.”

But even if the Red Sox don’t want to bring him back, or if they want to return him as minor league depth, there’s a good chance that he could land as a fourth outfielder somewhere else. With his speed and ability to play center field, his high-profile success should open doors.

“To do it on a stage like this, I hope that other people have seen that I can play in the big leagues,” McDonald said.

No matter what, he will always have his big moment, the shot he was waiting for through all the years toiling in the minor leagues — when he was called up from the minors, anonymous and unknown, and given the opportunity to pinch hit on his first day up for a struggling Sox team. He hit a home run to tie the game, and then hit a single off the wall to win it an inning later. He homered the next day as well as Boston turned its season around and erased its poor start.

The moment was one of the best of this season, and depending on how this team does, it could be remembered for a long time.

“It’s something that I’ll always remember. I don’t know where it ranks with Red Sox fans,” McDonald said.

“It happened real fast. And it’ll still probably be the offseason before I can think about what really happened. But you go from being in the minor leagues, and no one really knowing about you, to doing something like that?

“I’ll always remember that, April 20. Hopefully the fans do too,” McDonald said.

Drafted in the first round out of Colorado in 1997, McDonald never lived up to his early billing, partly due to his own immaturity. He didn’t know how hard he would need to work to succeed.

“Coming up, when I was 18, when I was a first-round pick, I didn’t really know how to have success in this game. I thought I could just show up and play. And over the years, work is what’s kept me in the game,” McDonald said.

He played over 1,300 games in the minors over 13 years, getting into a few major league games, with Baltimore in 2004 and Minnesota in 2007. He finally got an extended look, 45 games, in the majors with Cincinnati last year, but it seemed like his big chance, his big moment, was never going to come. Still, he promised he never thought about hanging it up. He was sure that opportunity was looming.

“I just like playing baseball. I don’t care where it’s at. I mean, I’ve got a family, and I’m sure sooner or later I’ve got to do something else. But there’s never been a Plan B. There’s only been a Plan A. And that’s what’s kept me going — I was just going to keep at it until someone gave me the opportunity.”

Opportunity, he’s had. And he’s run with it, fortunately for the Red Sox. McDonald has been an important part of this team, pitching in when needed. And it’s been the most fun he’s had in baseball — on a team of workaholics who take nothing for granted, McDonald is among his kind.

“If you look at the makeup of this team, it’s guys like myself that have grinded to get where they’re at,” McDonald said, as his teammates trickled onto the field. He pointed over at them to prove his point.

“You’ve got a guy that’s the MVP [Pedroia], that’s the first one in the cage getting ready for the game, and this guy won the MVP. It’s great to be around guys who work the way they work, who prepare for games the way they do.

“For us to be here, right now, where we’re at? We’re in the A.L. East. To be where we’re at says a lot about the character of the guys we have here in the locker room. To be where we’re at in this division, with the injuries, I’ve never seen anything in my life like the injuries we’ve had.

“Maybe when the season’s over, when people really have time to think about what happened here — I mean, we had (Daniel) Nava, we had Darnell McDonald, and we’re in the A.L. East! That’s why we play the game. You never know,” he said.

As he points out, players like he and Nava are heartwarming stories because they’re underdogs. But when the team’s full complement returns, there’s still a chance McDonald could be the odd man out again.

A lot of players in this situation say they don’t think about the possibilities, the chance they could be sent down to the minors. When McDonald says it, it’s hard to doubt him. To stay upbeat through 13 years in the minor leagues, he has had to learn to live the concepts that to some are only lip service.

“That’s the biggest thing that’s helped me keep going over the years. Don’t look far into the future, don’t think long about the past, just think about how good I can be today,” McDonald said, as he got up to join his teammates on the field for pre-game stretching.

He grabbed his glove.

“I don’t think about that. No. No clichés, I’m serious. I play this game feeling like I’m on a 24-hour contract. I’m not even supposed to be here right now,” he said.

But he is. Just another day in the majors, another day of the dream coming true.

dbarbari@projo.com