Roman Anthony Makes Eerie Red Sox History With First Career Home Run

Just as the entire sports world was laughing at the Boston Red Sox, Roman Anthony gave them a reason to smile.

The 21-year-old Anthony, Major League Baseball's consensus number-one prospect, launched his first career home run in his first plate appearance on Monday night against the Seattle Mariners. The blast, which came against Mariners All-Star Logan Gilbert, traveled 391 feet to right-center field.

Anthony's blast came barely 24 hours after the Red Sox traded franchise player Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants, and only an hour after chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and CEO Sam Kennedy had finished explaining the highly controversial move to the media.

But there was another reason Anthony's blast felt so symbolic.

According to WEEI's Rob Bradford, Anthony became the youngest Red Sox player to homer in a big-league game since Devers, who did it at 20 years old in the same ballpark in Seattle back in 2017.

It was also the first at-bat of Anthony's first big-league road trip, and the trip started with him watching Devers, who was under contract for 8 1/2 more years, deboarding the team charter plane as it was getting ready to leave for the West Coast.

“Obviously, he was a phenomenal player for us, and everyone knows what Raffy could do and how he was as a teammate,” said Anthony, per Ian Browne of MLB.com. “So it’s sad to see him go, but as a team, we understand we've got to move on and find ways to win.”

The Red Sox got a 2-0 win over the Mariners, their sixth in a row. They're now two games above .500 for the first time since May 2, and if the playoffs started on Tuesday, they'd be in the dance.

And speaking of the six-game winning streak, the Red Sox still have yet to lose a game since Anthony first woke up knowing he'd be on the roster (semantics, because they lost on the day he was called up, but also somewhat prescient).

Obviously, there's still lots of outside noise to come in the unraveling of the Devers trade. But Anthony's blast was a reminder that the Red Sox still have reasons to be excited even amid the chaos.