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Ross On Walk-Off: 'There's No Better Feeling'

BOSTON (CBS) - After Cody Ross smacked a pair of two-run home runs on Wednesday night, he was asked prior to Thursday night's game if he felt a repeat performance coming.

"I thought that was a dumb question," Ross joked. "I guess not."

Ross found himself back on the Fenway Park podium Thursday night after he clubbed a three-run, walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth, giving Boston a 3-1 win over the White Sox.

The Red Sox hadn't mustered any offense to that point, after putting up a 10-spot -- six of those runs coming from Ross -- the night before.

But as soon as Ross lifted a 1-1 offering from Chicago closer Addison Reed, he thought back to his power surge from Wednesday. Although it was a ball he didn't hit out that crossed hit mind at that point.

"As soon as it left my bat, I got this really exciting feeling. Then I had flashbacks of (Wednesday) night when I hit the same ball and it hit the wall," he recalled. "I thought even if it hits the wall Punto is fast enough to score from first and we'll still win 2-1, so that was all going through my mind and I saw it land."

"It's just an incredible feeling, something you can't describe with words," said Ross, with his five-year-old son next to him. "You just try to take it all in and try not to rush it, because you don't have many opportunities to do that."

"I want to be the guy up every time in that situation," said Ross. "I always have my whole life since I was my son's age. I like that pressure, just being there in the moment. It's a great feeling, especially when you come through and you're a hero. There's no better feeling."

"He loves that situation; he loves to be in the big spotlight," said manager Bobby Valentine. "He went deep, three runs, we win. That's as much fun as the guys have had in a long time. It's a good feeling."

As Ross rounded the bases, a sea of Red Sox awaited him at home plate. When Ross emerged, he was soaked with Gatorade -- thanks to teammate Alfredo Aceves -- and didn't have his jersey on anymore.

"I felt like a bunch of piranhas jumped on me and just started attacking me – I've never had that happen but I'd assume that's what it feels like," he said. "I just looked up and Punto is staring right at me with an evil look on his face, and he just grabs my jersey and just yanked on it."

Punto had a knack for ripping off his teammate's jerseys during the St. Louis Cardinals World Series run last year, earning him the nickname "The Shredder."

"He was famous for that in St. Louis," said Ross. "I got to meet 'the shredder' tonight."

It was the same jersey Ross wore on Wednesday. He is hoping to get it back for Friday night when Boston open's a three-game set against the Blue Jays at Fenway.

"Good thing I'm not really superstitious because I might want to wear that jersey tomorrow," he joked. "But I'll gladly get shredded every night… I will just think our clubhouse guys are good enough to stitch her back up and put it back in my locker. It'll be the same jersey, in my mind."

Read: Red Sox-Blue Jays Preview

The Red Sox have now won five of seven out of the All-Star break, and sit a game back of the two wild card spots. They are hoping a little late-inning magic will keep their hot streak rolling for the foreseeable future.

"I hope we can keep rolling," said Ross, who now has 50 RBI on the season. "It's so nice to come out (Wednesday) and score 10 runs. Then I look up today and in the ninth we don't have any. You'd think (Wednesday) night we'd feed off that and keep going. They shut us down but we came back; we got some timely hits and that's the kind of stuff you feed off of."

"Hopefully we can continue with that moving forward."

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