Star Metro - Hometown hero Volpe lives dream with grand slam for Yankees

But the hero who crushed the momentum-changing blast in the third inning of an 11-4 rout Tuesday of the Los Angeles Dodgers said the biggest moment came when the crowd at Yankee Stadium chanted his name.

"Number one," he said. "Definitely number one."

The 23-year-old shortstop said his four-run homer was over the fence before he knew what was happening.

"I pretty much blacked out as soon as I saw it go over the fence," Volpe said. "We just want to keep putting pressure on them and I think everyone had confidence in everyone in the lineup that someone was going to get the big hit.

"We've been having such good at-bats and putting such good swings on the ball, that we just felt like it was only a matter of time."

The Yankees still trail 3-1 in the best-of-seven Major League Baseball championship final but they are far from beaten.

"We've been through so much the whole year. We're not going to go down easy at all," Volpe warned.

"We were confident in the dugout the whole game," Volpe said. "It's my first playoffs but these have been probably the craziest things I've ever been a part of, so it's just foot on the gas always."

When the Yankees last won the World Series in 2009, Volpe recalls being an eight-year-old kid watching the celebration parade in Manhattan, where he was born.

"Hopefully when we win the World Series and I'm with family, we can all reflect on everything," said Volpe, who admitted as a child he dreamed of moments like his grand slam "probably every night."

- 'That's pretty cool' -

Yankees catcher Austin Wells said he couldn't imagine what it meant to Volpe.

"Just his whole family going way back being Yankee fans, him being at the parade in '09, growing up a Yankees fan, now being the shortstop, hit a grand slam in the World Series in a must-win game, I mean, it doesn't get any better than that -- so that's pretty cool," Wells said.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Volpe handles the pressure of being a hometown hero well.

"He handles it great. He loves being a Yankee," Boone said. "Just as importantly, though, loves the guys he gets to go do it with every day. The bond in that room is real."

Boone was pleased when the fans chanted Volpe's name.

"It was pretty cool," Boone said. "It's like you finally got to see the top blow off Yankee Stadium in a World Series game. When Anthony hits that ball, it was like fun to see Yankee Stadium erupt, just the energy, the noise, the excitement."

M.Johnston--SMC