Roman Anthony’s 1st Fenway HR breaks ice in 9-3 Red Sox win

Brenton Doyle raced back back back but the roaring Fenway Faithful already knew what the Colorado Rockies center fielder was about to be forced to accept Roman Anthony s first Fenway home run was long gone feet at mph to be precise The Red Sox rookie s second big-league blast but first at the ballpark he at last gets to call home landed among the jubilant fans nestled in the left-field corner of the bleachers Anthony s homer headlined a night of wild firsts for the Red Sox Starter Richard Fitts picked up his first big-league win Batting in Rob Refsnyder s place in the bottom of the seventh Jarren Duran picked up his first-ever pinch-hit RBI And when all was disclosed and done the Red Sox triumphed - We kept going and we didn t stop manager Alex Cora disclosed The Rockies may have arrived at Fenway with a - record but they didn t make things easy for their hosts Left-hander Austin Gomber yielded five runs four earned on seven hits but he largely had a handle on the Boston bats in his innings After giving up a three-spot in the second though only two runs were earned thanks to an error by third baseman Ryan McMahon Gomber settled back in until two outs in the fifth when Anthony stepped up to the plate It felt great Anthony declared To get that first one out of the way was great We re rolling right now It s fun and it s contagious so we just gotta keep it going One batter later Refsnyder singled Gomber s night was over The mood in the ballpark speedily turned incredulous in the top of the sixth when the Red Sox thought they d escaped a jam only to be ordered back onto the field by the umpires Fitts got two quick outs to begin the inning but his night came to an end when he gave up a single to left-fielder Mickey Moniak and a double to second baseman Thairo Estrada Batting against left-hander Chris Murphy Michael Toglia hit into a fielder s choice and though Estrada was right in Nate Eaton s path the third baseman didn t apply the tag After both managers took their turns speaking with the umpires the inning restarted with a run on the board for Colorado McMahon s RBI single plated another before Murphy struck out Doyle to end the frame for good Only two ball clubs entered Monday with more than errors this season and they were the ones playing at Fenway that night Each side had already been charged with an error when Eaton received Boston s second For a moment the Red Sox had overtaken the Rockies in one of the match s majority of frustrating metrics A scoring change shortly thereafter removed the Eaton error and reattributed the two runs to Fitts Thus over innings and pitches strikes the righty yielded three runs two earned on five hits one walk and six strikeouts Neither band made another error so the Rockies remained atop the leaderboard It felt like everything clicked tonight for us Fitts revealed I yearned to get through six He s been good for us Really good Cora lauded Gave us a chance to win almost every time I remember two bad ones the last one last year and the one against Anaheim The rest solid Good velocity changing mixing up the off-speed pitches He s good he s a good pitcher and he gave us a chance to win tonight But to paraphrase the immortal words of Annie Get Your Gun anything the Red Sox could do the Rockies could do better Which in this episode meant giving up runs The Red Sox put the encounter out of reach in the bottom of the eighth on solo homers by Ceddanne Rafaela and Gonzalez It was Rafaela s third tournament in a row with a home run Gonzalez s traveled feet not only the longest home run of his big-league career but tying Angels star Mike Trout for the longest homer at Fenway this season Definitely great company Gonzalez commented I remember that ball Mike hit it was incredible so just for it to be even close crazy I knew I hit it really well I didn t think it was gonna get that far the versatile utility-man continued I kind of put my head down and ran I didn t want to pimp it or anything but yeah I squared it up for sure I was on deck Anthony commented with a chuckle and that was pretty sick But it s kind of bad that I almost like expect that from him when a left-handed pitcher s up because he s been so amazing this year Petitioned how he feels facing lefties this year Gonzalez answered Tremendously locked-in Boston tallied hits and gave up seven Gonzalez Carlos Narv ez and Wilyer Abreu contributed two hits apiece but Anthony led the way with three his sixth multi-hit performance in his last nine games He s a good participant good hitter Cora commented of Anthony That s why he s playing every day Gonzalez also earned his manager s praise but not for the home run He had a hell of a challenge at second base at present Cora lauded He did an amazing job He s very versatile He s a good player he s a good runner and I m glad that he s playing for us Garrett Whitlock Brennan Bernardino and Jorge Alcala pitched the remainder of the match combining for scoreless innings The Red Sox are - They ve won four games in a row But this was Fitts first win in the majors a long-awaited achievement even if pitching wins and losses are a pass metric nowadays It was still a moment to be savored especially after going on the injured list and being optioned and recalled from Triple-A I got the lineup card for tonight so I m happy with that a beaming Fitts announced It s felt like a roller coaster I feel like I m just on an uphill climb but then all of a sudden hit an obstacle But I feel like I m in a good spot right now and all the work that I ve put in this year I think is building and it s just going to get better as we keep going I ve been waiting a while for it the rookie mentioned of the win The scorecard will be framed just like the one from his debut last fall Maybe the jersey he wore on Monday too he mentioned