Plus, Jhostynxon Garcia has himself a day for Portland.
I know, I know, you can’t help but manifest that Abdul Carter or Travis Hunter falls to four somehow into the Patriots’ lap tonight. Me too, but let’s also manifest a world where you can somehow have 28, 29, or 30 spots on the Red Sox roster instead of the customary 26 and so we can welcome Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer up with open arms… and maybe Worcester closer Nick Burdi too. Hey, I can dream, right? Let’s get into it.
Worcester, Game 1: W, 5-4 (BOX SCORE)
It was a beautiful day to watch 14 hours of baseball at Polar Park in Worcester. A full crowd watched as Mark Kolozsvary delivered three RBI hits to send the WooSox out in front of the Syracuse Mets despite seemingly running into trouble at every turn; this was Robert Stock’s least efficient outing of the year. In fact, on a day that the first base play was sloppy on both sides while the Mets stranded fourteen men in seven innings, the saving grace the WooSox got was a surefire rally-ender dropped by Joey Meneses to let Nick Sogard reach base safely to score Roman Anthony. Anthony, who reached on a double, was absolutely outstanding all day between getting to short fly balls, calling Sogard off and just generally being on his game… more on that in a second.
Worcester, Game 2: W, 5-4 (BOX SCORE)
No, not de ja vu. This was about as close of a call as game one due to shaky pitching and an untimely fielding error by Alex Binelas. Andthings would have been very dire had it not been for Nathan Hickey’s late two-run shot that almost cleared the entire park to put the WooSox up 5-2 before the Mets came firing back. Brian Van Belle was getting picked apart in the fourth inning, and luckily he had the backing of an early three runs in the first two innings courtesy of an impressive leadoff single by Roman Anthony and a nuke by Marcelo Mayer, his second in as many days and his sixth of the season. Trevor Story getting off to such a strong start has really made things interesting in the middle infield…
Marcelo Mayer with his 4th homer in 5 games
soxprospects.com/players/maye…
— SoxProspects.com (@soxprospects.com) 2025-04-23T22:26:03.585Z
Portland: W, 5-1 (BOX SCORE)
Password Garcia is batting .500 since April 15. While this seems like an arbitrary selection of games, what is not arbitrary is that he leads the team in virtually every batting category in 2025 (alongside dependable Abhram Liendo) and he doubles up some other members of this starting roster in batting average and OPS. He was caught stealing, but he really has looked otherworldly to start the year and would be my choice for a spot in Worcester when the eventual Roman Anthony promotion happens. Wyatt Olds had his most dependable relief outing of the year, going 3 strong to carry the Sea Dogs to victory against Reading (Phillies AA).
Greenville: L, 3-4 (BOX SCORE)
Jeremy Wu-Yelland, a 4th round 2020 draft pick who’s been plagued by injuries, is an intriguing prospect who started the year being almost unhittable, or at least, uh, un-score-on-able. Unfortunately, his luck ran out when he came out for the ninth after closing out the seventh on a dicey Dylan Carlson relief outing that also started promising. He got walked off. But there were some positives in this game against the Spartanburgers (Rangers High-A): Nazzan Zanetello, who may have his line marred by continued strikeouts, had a two-run RBI double with two outs that, if it went the other way, would have given this game have a different tone going into the ninth.
Salem: W, 4-0 (F/10)(BOX SCORE)
There was no scoring in this game to speak of until Salem went off for four runs in extra innings against Hickory thanks to Nathanel Yuten capitalizing on a Crawdads (Rangers A) fielding error. Franklin Arias would drive a run in two at-bats later, a play with a WPA of .207, and Yuten would come home alongside Karem Ayubi. Before that point, both teams combined for 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position. And let’s not hesitate to recognize the arms that made this shutout possible: Brandon Clarke with six strikeouts in 3 1⁄3 frames, giving up Salem’s only walk, last year’s 14th round pick Shea Sprague going SIXTEEN relief outs in his best appearance of the young season, and, of course, Matt McShane closing things out in style and rebounding after a tough outing the other day.
Have a happy Thursday – see you Saturday!