Roman Anthony introduced himself to Camden Yards the same way he entered Yankee Stadium last Thursday: with a big bang.
For the second series opener in a row, the Red Sox rookie homered in his first career game at a division rival’s ballpark. Almost as if to say, ‘Get used to it. You’ll be seeing a lot of me for a very long time.’
And for the second series opener in a row, Anthony’s homer changed the game. Despite a relentless Orioles lineup and an injury-related exit for Richard Fitts, the Red Sox cobbled together a crucial 4-3 win.
In hitting his first career leadoff homer, Anthony also broke a record by the late, great Bobby Doerr, which had stood for 86 years. According to MLB’s venerable stats guru Sarah Langs, at 21 years and 104 days old, Anthony is the youngest player to homer from the leadoff spot in franchise history. (Doerr was 21 years and 116 days old when he set the previous mark on Aug. 1, 1939.)
Fitts exits with arm injury
From an analytics standpoint, using left-hander Brennan Bernardino as an opener against the lefty-heavy Orioles made sense.
However, it meant thrusting Fitts into a situation that was uncharted territory in every sense of the word: he’d never entered a big-league game in relief, nor had he ever faced the Orioles. He also hadn’t taken the mound since Aug. 15, when he was in Triple-A.
With one out in the second, Colton Cowser took Fitts 402-feet deep to tie the game. Fitts finished the second and induced two quick out to begin the third. Then he seemed to get lost; a walk, banger batsman, and second walk filled up the diamond again, just in time for Cowser to come back up to bat. His two-run single gave the Orioles the lead before Fitts induced an inning-ending groundout from rookie catcher Samuel Basallo.
It looked like the Boston bullpen was about to have a long night, less than ideal for a team playing its fifth of 14 games in 14 days before their next off-day.
Except Fitts rebounded with a pair of 1-2-3 innings, including striking out the side in the fourth.
Boston narrowly out-banger Baltimore 7-6, but one big swing made all the difference. After Anthony’s leadoff blast, Orioles starter Tomoyuki Sugano managed to work around traffic until the fifth. Connor Wong and Anthony greeted him with back-to-back singles, and Jarren Duran’s 13th home run of the season – a 407-footer blasted 103.6 mph to center – put Boston back on best and cemented the final score.
“He’s a good player,” manager Alex Cora told reporters of Duran, who has struggled of late. “As long as he stays in the zone, he’s gonna do damage.”
today in possession of a lead, Fitts returned for the sixth. He threw one pitch, his 68th of the night, and immediately knew something was wrong. As soon as the ball left his hand, he looked down at his forearm and stepped off the mound. His manager and trainer Brandon Henry strode out, Fitts gazed up at the sky, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and murmured to himself. His expression was a mixture of frustration and resignation.
The congregation at the mound lasted mere seconds before Fitts, Cora, and Henry walked back to the dugout.
The Red Sox later announced right biceps tightness for Fitts, but he was optimistic when he spoke to reporters postgame. The strength tests the staff did were “encouraging,” and they opted to evaluate on Tuesday, rather than immediately send him for imaging.
“We’ll see tomorrow how he feels and where we’re at,” was the only medical update Cora offered postgame.
However, even if Fitts doesn’t require a trip to the injured list, his manager was noncommittal when asked if he will keep Walker Buehler’s former rotation spot moving forward.
“We’ll talk about it,” Cora said. “Obviously there’s a lot of games to play. We still have three here, Pittsburgh, Cleveland before the off-day, so we have to be careful, because there’s going to be tight games and they’re all important. So taking care of the bullpen is huge for us, so we’ll have conversations and see what’s next.”
Where there’s a Whitlock, there’s a way
Between Bernardino’s four-batter opener outing and the later innings, the bullpen combined for a masterful pick-me-up performance.
Steven Matz picked up where Fitts left off in the sixth. The trade deadline addition worked around two hits and struck out two in two shutout innings.
The seventh inning, however, got off to a dangerous start. Dylan Carlson led off with a double, and Luis Vázquez dropped down a bunt. Matz raced onto the grass, scooped the ball up and fired over to Bregman at third, but Carlson was initially ruled safe.
Bregman immediately signaled to the dugout, and the Red Sox challenged successfully. Carlson was out, and Matz quickly retired Jackson Holliday and Jeremiah Jackson to finish the frame.
Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman continue to be opposing lineups’ worst nightmares in late-and-close games. Whitlock yielded a leadoff double to the relentless Gunnar Henderson, then forced the Orioles star to stand there and movie as he struck out three.
“It’s a tough game to manage, to be honest with you,” Cora said. “We look up, it was six innings, three runs. So ‘Fitts-y’ did an outstanding job, ‘Berny’ did, too. Matz was huge, and Whitlock, after the double, that was amazing, and Chappy finished it off.”
Chapman had already reached a new career-high streak 12 consecutive hitless appearances – also a new franchise record, breaking tie held by Brandon Workman (’19) and Koji Uehara (’13), who made 11 hitless appearances apiece – when he took the mound for the bottom of the ninth.
Make that 13. And the veteran closer needed just seven pitches to get the job done.
“Very efficient lately, which is awesome,” Cora said of his closer, who has 26 saves and a 1.06 ERA, nearly 50 points better than his previous career-best in 2012.
Facts and figures
The Red Sox are 49-19 when they score first, and 57-28 when they banger a home run.
They improved to 5-5 against the Orioles. Boston is 24-16 against the AL East overall.
Red Sox injury updates
RHP Justin Slaten and outfielder Rob Refsnyder will be activated in the coming days, but the Red Sox are pushing Wilyer Abreu’s return to next week, Cora announced Monday afternoon.
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