ANAHEIM -- Oh, my aching back.

How many times have you said that in your lifetime?

Probably not as many as J.D. Drew has over the past six weeks.

"It's been so frustrating," he said, "trying to get back into playing shape."

Two weeks ago, Drew wasn't sure he'd be healthy enough to play in the American League Division Series against the Angels. The herniated disk in his back pained him when he was merely sitting, much less trying to play baseball. It helped somewhat to move around, but he couldn't move well enough to swing a bat with any velocity, or run around in his customary position in right field.

"I had days when I couldn't do anything," he said. "If I sat for even a few minutes, I'd get stiff. The pain kept flaring up."

He didn't play at all from Aug. 17 until Sept. 24, when he was 1 for 2 against the Indians. Four days later, he got to the plate three more times against the Yankees' 20-game winner, Mike Mussina, going 0 for 2 with a walk.

That was it -- five plate appearances in six weeks heading into the playoffs.

Given that, Drew was just hoping to be in the lineup. He wasn't thinking about being in the limelight.

But that's where he found himself Friday night as the hero of Boston's dramatic and demoralizing (to the Angels) 7-5 victory in Game 2 of the ALDS.

The Angels had rallied from early deficits of 4-0 and 5-1 to tie the game, 5-5, in the eighth inning, and had their record-setting closer, Francisco Rodriguez -- the renowned K-Rod, who'd racked up 62 saves this season -- on the mound.

As Red Sox slugger David Ortiz said: "He's one of the best pitchers in the league. If you get a pitch you can hit from him, you'd better hit it, because you might not see another one."

Ortiz saw one he liked leading off the ninth, and drilled a double off the right-field wall. Coco Crisp was sent in to run for Big Papi, but he had to stay on second base when Kevin Youkilis grounded to third.

That brought Drew to the plate.

After going 0 for 4 in Game One, he'd gotten off to a good start in Game 2 by driving in Boston's first run with a two-out single that scored Ortiz in the first inning, after which Jason Bay clubbed a three-run homer to left-center.

After striking out in the third and flying out in the fifth against Angels starter Ervin Santana, Drew had another single in the seventh, off reliever Jose Arredondo.

If he could just get one more single, Drew figured as he walked from the on-deck circle to the plate in the ninth, it would get the speedy Crisp home from second with the go-ahead run.

"I was trying to hit the ball square," he said, "to allow Coco to score. [Rodriguez] threw me a fastball in, then the rest of the pitches were change-ups -- some pretty good ones."

The count was 2 and 2 when K-Rod threw a change-up that was up in the strike zone.

"With two strikes," Drew said, "I was just trying to hit the ball hard. It ended up going out of the park."

Did it ever -- carrying high and deep into the night, well over the wall in right-center, more than 400 feet from home plate.

"That was kind of fun," Drew said, sitting in front of his locker in the Boston clubhouse. "To hit a big home run in a key situation makes for a lot of fun. There's no greater feeling as a baseball player."

Drew is some kind of baseball player. A very special kind. The kind who can hardly swing a bat for six weeks, then win a postseason game with one swing.

"You wonder," Bay marvelled, "how, with only one or two games under his belt, he can flip the switch and be ready. He's got an exceptional eye."

Boston manager Terry Francona was delighted by Drew's homer, but not surprised.

"I didn't surprise me, or I wouldn't have played him," Francona said. "I heard him talking about trying to swing at strikes. It's not as easy to do that as it sounds. He's tried to grind out at-bats. He's not gotten overanxious.

"That at-bat, [Rodriguez] started him with a fastball, and then he went exclusively soft, because you have to respect [Drew's] bat and what he can do. If you make a mistake, he can hit it out of the ballpark.

"That was a huge hit. A game-changer."

Drew had a huge homer in the ALCS last year, belting a grand slam in Game 6 against the Indians, helping propel the Sox, who had fallen behind in the series 3 games to 1, to the pennant.

He went on to hit .333 (5 for 15) in the World Series as Boston swept Colorado.

This year, Drew was wondering if he'd even get to play in the postseason.

"I thought at some point I was going to have to shut it down and watch the team go through the playoffs," he said. "So it's nice to be out there.

"It isn't the easiest thing to do to try to get back into playing shape while you're in the playoffs. But it's working out. My legs are coming back. I'm just trying to grind out at-bats, play good defense, and see what happens."

Speaking of defense, it's worth mentioning that, in addition to banging out three hits, Drew made an outstanding catch against the fence of Garret Anderson's long fly ball to right with two outs in the sixth.

"I don't know how it looked on TV," he said, "but it really wasn't that hard. I jumped against the wall to give myself a brace."

Drew wasn't looking forward to the long plane ride back to Boston. But, however much his back may have bothered him on the flight, it had to make him feel better to know that he had proved to be a huge pain in the neck to the Angels.