Boston’s Alex Verdugo, center, celebrates his two-run home run during Wednesday’s 5-0 win over the Rays with Michael Chavis, left, as Tampa Bay catcher Mike Zunino looks down. Steve Nesius/Associated Press
In his 10th game with the Red Sox, Alex Verdugo came through.
The left-handed hitter with the sweet swing who will always be compared to Mookie Betts, Verdugo took a nice whack at a curveball and sent it over the right-field seats for his first career homer in a Red Sox uniform on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field.
It was a clutch hit, too. The two-run shot broke a scoreless tie and put the Sox on the board in their eventual 5-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
“He was pretty happy, I’ll tell you that, when he came to the dugout,” Manager Ron Roenicke said afterward. “And it was huge, at the time it was huge. I thought (Rays starter Ryan) Yarbrough was throwing the ball fantastic, and the next thing you know, we have two runs on the board. The players know it. They feel what’s going on and to get that lead, I’m sure he felt pretty good about that.”
Verdugo said it felt nice, but wasn’t overly impressed with himself. He has lofty goals. And one home run isn’t going to suddenly satisfy his craving to be a monster player in the big leagues.
“I think my biggest thing for me was just to help the team out,” he said. “It was a tie game, just to get up there and give us a 2-0 lead kind of get the pitcher, kind of get everybody a little breath and it’s like, alright, hey, we’ve got some room to work with. That was my biggest thing, man. I came here to contribute. I play the game hard and I want to contribute in everything that I do. To finally be able to help out and to get a couple of runs for us, is just, it’s huge.”
Verdugo was so chill about the whole thing he didn’t bother to track down the baseball. But his growing confidence is one reason why this might just work out.
Replacing Betts isn’t an easy task. He’ll be compared to him for the rest of his career in Boston. So let’s do it right here.
• Betts took four games to hit his first homer with the Red Sox; Verdugo took 10.
• Betts had eight hits in his first 10 games; so does Verdugo.
• Betts was 21 years old; Verdugo is 24.
• Betts was a quiet, unassuming, undersized player; Verdugo is loud, boisterous and excitable.
He had to work just to get in the lineup against Yarbrough on Wednesday. Roenicke has benched him against some lefties this year, and each time, Verdugo has walked into Roenicke’s office to let him know that it’s a mistake.
“I just mess around with him,” Verdugo said. “It’s one of those things when I’m not in there against a lefty, I’m like, ‘hey, Ron, I can hit them.’ But I think he knows it too. I think he also knows when players are pressing so he’s doing his job, he’s doing what he has to do.
“I take a lot of pride against lefties. Even if the results are not there, I still feel like I’m having quality at-bats and yeah, maybe there’s a strikeout like there was today. But the first at-bat I had, I think I saw eight, nine pitches, something like that. I was swinging, battling him off. He’s throwing me everything he’s got. He’s throwing me the fastball, the changeups, the curveballs. Say he throws one out of the zone and I have a good swing on it and I foul it back. It’s only a matter of time before finally I start putting that one in play and not having to go with two strikes and feeling I need to battle or I need to put the ball in play.”
There’s no question Verdugo has been cold to start the year. He’s coming off back surgery that was going to keep him out in April and May anyways. Then the coronavirus hit, the season got delayed and Verdugo got extra time to prepare.
But his swing is still coming along. And to contribute when he’s not feeling perfect is a positive sign for the youngster.
“I think it’s pretty obvious a lot of us are kind of going through it right now, are trying to find our swings and there’s a lot of new things in baseball with not able to see the videos until after the game and all that,” he said. “So the in-game adjustments have been hard. But yeah, it felt really good to finally be able to stay on one, to stay through it and to get one out.”
With success will come more confidence for the guy who will forever get compared to one of the best outfielders in Red Sox history.
“We need that guy,” Sox starter Martin Perez said of Verdugo. “He’s got amazing talent, and I think he just needs to believe more in himself and good things are coming, man.”
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