This is not a drill. Roman Anthony played a baseball game on Tuesday.
The Boston Red Sox phenom hadn’t played in a game since May 4 when he suffered a partially torn ring finger CMC ligament. It was a long road to get back to game action for the 22-year-old, but he was able to kick off a minor league rehab assignment on Tuesday night with Double-A Portland.
Anthony playing in a game is enough to get the Red Sox fanbase fired up. But there’s more to be excited about. He looked like he didn’t even miss a game.
Anthony stepped up to the plate in the first inning and immediately got on base with a walk. Then, in the third inning, Anthony got his first knock of the rehab assignment with a single to left field.
It’s hard to ask for much more from a guy in their first game back on a rehab assignment, but Anthony kept going. In the fifth inning, Anthony showed that there’s no doubt that he’s healthy. The young slugger bashed a long homer to right field. The ball came off his bat at a blistering 108 miles per hour.
For good measure, he added another walk in his fourth plate appearance of the night in the seventh inning before being replaced on the base paths by Ahbram Liendo.
Anthony couldn’t have asked for a better start to his rehab assignment. He finished the night 2-for-2 with two walks, a homer, two RBIs and a run scored. That’ll play.
Before the game, Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy outlined the next steps for Anthony after Tuesday’s contest.
“Today he’s playing for sure,” Tracy said, as transcribed by MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo. “Tomorrow is already scheduled as a hybrid day where it’s like he’ll possibly play, possibly not. We’re just gonna see how he feels because he’s going to have a full day of BP on the field and his first game. We’ll just see how he feels. There’s still times where if he gets a little soreness, is it better to just take that day off and resume the next day? It could go either way.”
Clearly, he looked good on Tuesday night. Now, the next steps are seeing how he feels on Wednesday. The best-case scenario would be no soreness. If he plays on Wednesday, that would be a clear positive sign.
It was one game, but we saw that he certainly can still hit. Now, it’s about seeing how he recovers and then getting him back in the outfield.
What a night for Boston, to say the least.
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