It was a long road back to the Boston Red Sox lineup for Roman Anthony. Anthony has missed over 100 games this season after suffering a finger injury in early May.
On his road back to Fenway, Anthony spent the last week on a rehab stint in Worcester with the WooSox. Anthony spoke with Spectrum News’ Kevin Shea about his journey back to the Major League lineup, “I think, you know, for me the entire time the goal is to you know heal as quickly as possible and get back to the to the guys as soon as I can so good to get that first week under my belt and remember what it feels like to play baseball and then being here this week, being with some guys, some familiar faces, or some more familiar faces, I should say. It’s good to be here, good to be close to Boston. And yeah, I’m just looking forward to getting back there.”
Prior to his rehab time in Worcester Anthony spent a week with the Sea Dogs in Portland, ME. He said his rehab assignments were deja vu for him, “It’s always great to be here. I mean, seeing the staff, seeing the people, it’s awesome. Like I said about Portland, it’s another place where you go and when you get to the first affiliate in Portland that’s in the New England area where it really starts to feel like you’re close to Boston, I think it just hits a little different. So being down in Fort Myers felt like I was just disconnected from the world and then getting back up here, getting to play there in front of our fans who go support the Sea Dogs, support here, and support the Red Sox as well. It’s great. And it’s great to be back here. And it almost feels like I’m just kind of going up the system again.”
Anthony continued saying that getting his body back being used to baseball activities has been one of his main rehab goals, “I think I was pleasantly surprised last week with how much time I’ve missed regardless of the level or whatever it was, just getting back in the box and feeling pretty normal. I think you always feel the best that first or second day, and then it kind of kind of start to learn about what you’re doing and how the body’s moving. So it’s been good, though. I think just continuing to see as many pitches as I can and get as many at bats as I can in the box and just take game reps, I think that’s the biggest thing from here on out. And so I’m to a point now where, you know, week two, I’m looking forward to getting back into a big league game, you know, as soon as possible.”
Anthony was excited to rehab with the WooSox and manager Iggy Suarez. Suarez has been a familiar face to Anthony throughout the outfielder’s journey to the majors, “Iggy’s awesome. I think being with him in Greenville, I got to experience him my first full year. And then seeing him when I played here in AAA and him helping out Trace (Red Sox Manager Chad Tracy) and now getting the job, I think he’s the right guy for the job here. And I was happy to see that he got put into that situation. So seeing him today was great. Went in, got to give him a big hug, talked to him for a little bit. But I think just the whole staff of guys here from the clubbies to just everyone here is so awesome, so it’s good to see everyone.”
Anthony made his return to the Boston lineup in New York on August 30th where he went 2 for 4 in a Red Sox loss.