Roman Anthony Enters Red Sox-Yankee Rivalry With Memorable Yankee Stadium Debut

Roman Anthony officially entered the world of the Red Sox with fans at Fenway Park holding up signs “Roman Empire” on June 9. The Red Sox were a middling team at that point even after scoring 19 runs in two wins at Yankee Stadium.

The Red Sox also were less than a week from trading Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants, a move that surprised many and occurred with him on the team plane ready for a flight to Seattle following a 2-0 win over the Yankees.

Fast forward nearly three months, other homegrown players are making their imprint on the rivalry with the Yankees, and the Red Sox are hoping Anthony eventually becomes the Yankee-killer Devers was with 31 homers in 119 games in the rivalry.

On Thursday, Anthony hit an RBI single through the hole into left field but saved his biggest imprint in his early appearances in the rivalry with a second deck homer into the right field seats to essentially clinch the latest win over the Yankees, who made their fourth error immediately before the blast.

The 21-year-old highlighted with fifth homer and third in nine games with a casual bat flip as he watched the ball go into the seats to some of the same fans heckling him for three hours, getting a memorable Yankee Stadium debut about two weeks after signing an eight-year, $130 million contract.

At 21 years, old 111 days, he is the youngest Red Sox with a homer and three RBIs in a completed game against the Yankees according to baseball-reference.com. Ted Williams hit two homers and drove in four runs when he was 21 years old, four days in a 5-5 tie at Fenway Park on Sept. 3, 1938 and Devers was 21 years, 249 days when he went 5-for-5 with four RBIs in an 11-0 rout at Yankee Stadium on June 30, 2018.

“I got to play them at home my first week, and now that I’m settled in and through that first week, this time around felt a little bit more calm, a little bit more controlled, and I just felt better,” Anthony said. “It was awesome (here). Quite the atmosphere, especially for us, and we know the rivalry, and it was exciting.”

It was the bat flip that left various figures in the Red Sox clubhouse buzzing, mostly because no one could recall seeing that reaction, especially Anthony, who got the ball back because the fan threw it back on the field.

“It just happened,” Anthony said after the Red Sox took three hours, 25 minutes to complete the win. “I don’t even know. I don’t usually do that, but it just happened.”

Perhaps more importantly, was Anthony’s poise as a 21-year-old born a little over a month into the 2004 season left various veterans impressed.

“To be honest, he’s probably the most mature 21-year-old baseball-wise I’ve ever been around my life,” Alex Bregman said. “I’m trying to figure out what he does wrong, honestly. We all are. We don’t know if he has any vice or anything. He just does everything the right way. The moment’s never too big for him. He knows who he is, he knows what he does well, and he sticks to that, and he executes.”

“It’s incredible. There’s not much else to say,” Lucas Giolito said. “He’s incredibly mature for his age, his at-bats are like, extremely professional, and he’s doing damage in situations we really need him to… I got called up to the big leagues. I was not nearly ready, I was not mature enough, not emotionally ready. Looking at him, it’s like, ‘Wow, there’s 21-year-olds that just can come up and do it at the highest possible level.’ And, yeah, we’re very lucky to have him.”

Anthony started with six hits in 47 at-bats as the Red Sox split his first 16 games. Then came three straight multi-hit games and a run of seven multi-hit games in 11 contests.

Anthony was 0-for-5 during Boston’s sweep at Fenway Park, getting the start against Ryan Yarbrough and sitting against lefties Carlos Rodon and Max Fried.

Rodon and Fried will both pitch this weekend, and it would be unlikely Anthony sits against them since he is 20-for-71 (.282) off left-handed pitching so far.

Anthony’s big night occurred eight years and eight days after Devers hit Aroldis Chapman’s 103 mph fastball for his fourth career homer and 15 games into his career. It occurred a little over 11 years after Mookie Betts made his major league debut at Yankee Stadium when the Red Sox were defending their third of four titles since 2004.

And now the Red Sox are hoping Anthony gets to the levels reached by Devers and Betts just without the difficult ending.

“He works hard every single day,” manager Alex Cora said. “He wants to be the best out there.”