Red Sox
“Like I said before the game, this is who we are. We are going to use the kids.”
Over 24 hours after the Red Sox traded away their face of the franchise in Rafael Devers, Boston’s next wave of young talent stepped up to help lift the team to a sixth-straight victory.
Red Sox top prospect Roman Anthony, batting third in the lineup on Monday night against the Mariners, belted his first career home run in the first inning — giving Boston an early lead en route to an eventual 2-0 win over Seattle.
“I think just for us young guys especially, and for all of us, I think the goal is the same — is just to help this team win every day,” Anthony said postgame. “And I think since I’ve been here, we’ve been doing a great job of that. Credit to our pitching staff, our bullpen and our defense has been great.
“Everything has just been rolling. So it’s a lot of fun when you’re playing winning baseball. And we’re just going to look to continue that. And us young guys, we’re just going to look to help these veteran guys and these guys who have been around to continue to help this team win.”
Boston’s victory gives the Red Sox eight wins in their last nine games — and also leapfrogs them past the Mariners and into the final Wild Card spot in the American League at 38-36.
“Like I said before the game, this is who we are. We are going to use the kids,” Alex Cora said postgame, per WEEI’s Rob Bradford. “They are going to play. We’re going to have different lineups. We love the at-bat. We do. He put a good swing on it. For the game, he did a good job. He’s not getting hits, but the at-bat is real. So we’ll keep going.”
Playing in his seventh career big-league game, Anthony took a sinker from Seattle starter Logan Gilbert and deposited it into right field for his first big fly.
According to Bradford, Anthony became the youngest Red Sox player (21 years old, 34 days) to hit a home run in a game since … Rafael Devers in 2017.
In fitting fashion, Devers also hit his first MLB home run at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park on July 26, 2017.
Even with some early growing pains both in the field and at the plate (.095 average), Anthony hasn’t felt out of place in his first week-plus up at the big leagues.
“I haven’t felt overmatched, so I’m not worried about it,” Anthony said. “Just continuing to try and pass the battle along to the next guy and find ways on and I know it’ll come through here soon. So it’s nice to kind of get that first one out of the way today and look to keep this thing rolling.”
Amid all of the discourse and drama drawn out of the Devers trade, Cora was impressed with how a Red Sox clubhouse featuring both established players and an influx of rookies have handled the last 24 hours.
“We have a bunch of veterans here who have been there, done that and they’ve been through stuff like that before. Obviously not stopping the plane and getting people off the plane,” Cora told Bradford. “They talk. They showed up.
“You saw them early stretching out there. We have a bunch of kids, too. I think that helps. As a group we had goals before the season and there were going to be injuries and moves and stuff, but we have a routine. And this is a good stretch for us and we have to keep playing good baseball.”
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