Roman Anthony rounds the bases after hitting a home run Monday against the Baltimore Orioles. Anthony’s emergence since his promotion in June has helped breath life into a Red Sox season that looked like it was going nowhere a few month ago. (Stephanie Scarbrough/Associated Press)
Energy is contagious.
We’ve been seeing that for about a month and a half at Fenway Park, where what looked like another lost season in May turned into an honest-to-goodness playoff race in July and August.
Remember how down we were at the end of May, when the Red Sox were on the verge of ruining the summer like a month of thunderstorms? One columnist whose last name has more Z’s than a nap even declared the season over and wrote the following:
That paragraph was written by somebody who obviously doesn’t know the first thing about anything.
OK, maybe it was me that was down at the end of May, stuck watching a baseball team in a funk and living in a place where it rained every weekend. In my defense, at that point in the season, the Red Sox had the momentum of a snail. Trevor Story had not yet found his ninth wind to become a reliable bat in the middle of the lineup for the first time since he played for the Colorado Rockies.
In that column, I also suggested they stop wasting Roman Anthony’s impressive talent in Triple-A. The addition of Anthony to this lineup was the spark that set this better second half ablaze. It wasn’t jettisoning Rafael Devers to San Francisco for ifs, buts, and a solid prospect flipped for Dustin May that put the Red Sox on the path to contention. It was the addition of Anthony, and the development of Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito as solid starting pitchers behind ace Garrett Crochet.
Enthusiasm spreads.
The thing that stands out about Anthony is, he’s a combination of work ethic and unbridled joy that’s rarely seen. He takes the game seriously. Even before the club rewarded him with a long contract extension, Anthony realized baseball is his profession, and taking pride in the profession is something everyone should strive for. Whatever you do, work to do it better.
We saw that out of Anthony in the short time he was in Portland playing for the Double-A Sea Dogs last season. Even as he worked his way through the minor leagues, Anthony carried himself with a major league focus.
Anthony entered Saturday’s game against the Pirates with 11 hits in his last 27 at-bats, including three home runs. In August alone, Anthony has had 12 games with at least two hits. We’re watching a very good player get even better by the game, and Anthony’s play has elevated everyone in the lineup around him. It’s a blast to behold. He’s made the team better, and it’s showing up in the form of a pennant chase.
If Anthony were the only electric rookie to debut this season, it would be a sign of an encouraging future. But there was also Kristian Campbell, who has been showing signs of figuring things out in Triple-A after struggling to maintain a hot start to his big league career. There was Marcelo Mayer, who if he can get through a full season without a trip to the injured list is the shortstop of the future, and there’s catcher Carlos Narvaez, whose emergence came at the exact right time, with Connor Wong starting the season as a one-man no-hitter.
Friday night, we saw the rookie who might come closest to Anthony in terms of potential impact on this season. Payton Tolle, a 6-foot-6 hulk blessed with the left arm of Zeus, made his major league debut after the fastest of tours through the Red Sox minor league system. Tolle was dominant in every stop, from Greenville to Portland, where he struck out 37 in 27 innings and posted a 1.67 earned-run average before his promotion to Triple-A Worcester, which was a brief three start dress rehearsal for the big leagues.
If you missed Tolle’s debut, here’s what you missed: a guy clearly having the time of his life throwing fastballs past major league hitters. Yes, he ran out of steam in the sixth inning, and yes, Greg Weissert threw gasoline and a lit cigarette on the game with his ineffective relief appearance, but what we saw in Tolle was a pitcher with the right temperament to get through the ups and downs of pitching against the best hitters in the world.
In the short time Tolle was in Portland, his coaches and teammates saw him as a guy eager to get better, a pitcher with the positive attitude to shake off a bad at-bat and focus on the task at hand. When Tolle has the baseball in his hand, Sea Dogs catcher Ronald Rosario said, the team is always in position to succeed. Tolle said a big part of the development he wanted to see from himself in the minors was the mental approach to the game.
Go back and watch the way Tolle reacted when he got out of minor jams in his debut. He didn’t look like a guy relieved to escape trouble. He looked like a guy with the confidence to know he could. He’s ready for this, and earned a spot in the rotation for this pivotal September.
Optimism spreads.
In May, the Red Sox looked flat and beaten. I didn’t see a resurgence coming, and I bet many of you didn’t either. Thanks to an infusion on young talent and enthusiasm, it’s here, and it’s brought meaningful September baseball.
