by Roman Anthony, the Red Sox outfielder who arrived in Boston with high hopes as baseball’s top prospect, made his eagerly awaited big-league debut in June.
Despite all of the excitement, the 21-year-old rookie has played in 53 games for the Red Sox and appears to have surpassed expectations.
In what way? It’s a good beginning to place himself beside Ted Williams on a few Red Sox records.
It’s clear that Anthony still has a ways to go before he can match the offensive powerhouse that a baseball great like Williams possessed.
However, only two months into his big-league career, Anthony has already achieved rarefied status thanks to his advanced hitting approach and acute eye at the plate at such a young age.
In the eighth inning of Tuesday’s victory over the Astros, Anthony hit a 428-foot single shot to go 1-for-2 at the plate. However, he also worked four walks out of Boston’s leadoff position, paving the way for a Red Sox lineup that scored 14 runs in a landslide win.
For the second consecutive night, Roman Anthony dominates!tweet.com/ineMndQgRR
Since Kyle Schwarber in 2021, no Red Sox player has ever achieved four walks in a single game like Anthony did. However, Anthony is the youngest Red Sox batter to also homer in a four-walk game since Williams did so on September 20, 1939, aged just 21 years and 91 days.
Only Hall-of-Famer Mel Ott (20 years, 124 days) has submitted a comparable stat line at a younger age, making Anthony the third-youngest player in MLB history to homer in a four-walk game. Who is the fourth-youngest player with a comparable box score? In 1986, Barry Bonds was 22 years and 37 days old.
Good company, huh?
During Tuesday’s NESN broadcast, Anthony was connected to Williams by another statistic: the rookie became the first Red Sox player since The Splendid Splinter to record 20 or more extra-base hits and 20 or more walks in his first 51 games.
Oh? l3cHjek8w0 Oh.pic.twitter.com
Anthony had a.406 on-base percentage in 52 games going into Wednesday’s game against Houston, where he went 0-for-4.
The only players with higher on-base percentages since 1950 through 52 career games are Willie McCovey (.429), Albert Pujols (.416), and Juan Soto (.413), according to Boston’s media notes.
Anthony had the big leagues’ second-highest on-base percentage, third-highest batting average, and tenth-highest OPS prior to Wednesday. With the young player batting just.114 in his first 15 games with Boston, it’s a far cry from the growing pains Anthony had at the beginning of his MLB career.
Alex Cora has expressed his admiration for Anthony’s quick effect, despite the Red Sox ending this road trip with a 2-4 record after games against San Diego and Houston.
For pinch-hitting Roman Anthony early on, Alex Cora cooked himself.”Who was the dumbass that did that?”explains everything you need to know about Roman Anthony’s uniqueness.Picture: pic.twitter.com/5Av4DPcuVH
Cora stated on Tuesday that the homer’s swing was amazing. There aren’t many people who go deep in that area of Daikin Park in Houston. The only thing he can do is stick to his game plan.
His method is his method. He won’t swing most of the time if you don’t toss it in the zone. In the first game of his career, we pinch batted for him, man. Who was that stupid [expletive] person?
Since 2023, Conor Ryan has worked as a staff writer for Boston.com, covering the Boston Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox.
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