Red Sox top prospect Xander Bogaerts had been playing well since his first call-up to the majors in mid-August, but the 20-year-old shortstop had yet to go deep. Saturday's game against the Yankees fixed all that, as Bogaerts took a Jim Miller pitch deep over the Red Sox bullpen in left.
Bogaerts had worked a 3-1 count and put himself into a position to get a good pitch to hit. Jackie Bradley Jr. was on first base already, and the Yankees were down 10-3 by the time the Sox came up to the plate in the fifth. That's when Bogaerts launched the 3-1 offering over the visitor's pen:
The home run was measured at 443 feet by Hit Tracker Online, making it a serious shot, especially for a 20-year-old who hasn't even found his real power stroke yet. Once again, I can't get over how much Bogaerts' swing looks like that of Manny Ramirez's. Now, looking like and being are two completely different things, but it's hard not to see some Manny in the mannerisms at the plate, from the step to the actual swing plane to the follow-through.
Belt high and inside is not a place you want to go to Bogaerts, especially if he's sitting fastball on a 3-1 count with his team already up.
It was the second time on Saturday that X drove in JBJ. Here's to many, many more occurrences of that in the future.