There were nine photographers jostling for position on the warning track by 7 p.m. on Monday night, all of them hoping to get the perfect shot of Roman Anthony emerging from the dugout to play his first major league game
The top prospect in baseball had finally arrived at Fenway Park. The spring of our discontent was over.
Thousands of fans, the Roman Legion you could say, joined in about 20 minutes later, raising their phones to record the moment when Anthony came to the plate for the first time in his career.
As the fans cheered, the 21-year-old took a strike from Shane Baz then hit a harmless fly ball to left field.
Delete, delete, delete.
Batting fifth, Anthony was 0 for 4 with a walk and an RBI in a 10-8 loss against the Rays that took 11 innings.
There were no smiles afterward.
“It was awesome. Unfortunately we didn’t couldn’t get a win. But it was a good experience,” Anthony said.
Anthony made hard contact in his second plate appearance, turning around a Baz fastball and hitting a 111.2-mile-per-hour liner off the pitcher. But the ball deflected to third baseman Junior Caminero and Anthony was thrown out.
Anthony endured his first embarrassing moment as a big leaguer in the fifth inning when he misplayed a single to right field and the ball skipped by him on the wet grass, allowing the Rays to score a run.
Anthony approached the ball from the side instead of from straight on.
“Just can’t happen,” Anthony said. “I’ve dealt with that skip a million times in my career. It’s tough when you lose a game like that and you feel like that’s the reason why you lost.”
With two runners on in the sixth inning, Rays manager Kevin Cash went to lefthander Garrett Cleavinger to face Anthony, a show of respect.
Sox manager Alex Cora let the kid hit and Cleavinger carved him up on four pitches, the last a sweeper that Anthony took for a called third strike.
Anthony drew a six-pitch walk in the seventh inning. There weren’t as many phones raised this time. On a misty 61-degree night, there were more empty seats than full ones at that point.
With the Sox down by two runs, Anthony helped fuel a comeback in the ninth inning.
With runners at second and third, his grounder to shortstop drove in a run. Fellow rookie Kristian Campbell then tied the game with an infield hit.
The Rays took the lead back in the 10th inning. They had lefthander Ian Seymour make his major league debut in the bottom of the inning.
Seymour grew up in Westborough and played for St. John’s of Shrewsbury before going on to Virginia Tech and being selected in the 2020 draft.
With his family in the crowd, Seymour allowed the tying to score with two outs when first baseman Jonathan Aranda made two errors on the same play.
But Seymour was able to end the rally there.
The Rays went ahead on an infield hit off Zack Kelly with two outs in the 11th. Rob Refsnyder pinch hit for Anthony leading off the bottom of the inning and drew a walk.
But the Sox didn’t score as Seymour picked up the win.
Anthony saw 18 pitches in his five plate appearances and impressed his manager with his approach.
“He was able to slow it down. The walk, hit the ball hard twice, stayed up the middle. He didn’t try to do too much,” Cora said. “It was a good first day.”
But a disjointed one, too. The Red Sox didn’t decide to promote Anthony from Triple A Worcester until around 3 p.m., making the move when Wilyer Abreu went on the injured list.
Anthony drove himself to Fenway, navigating the Massachusetts Turnpike without a problem.
“It was great, there wasn’t too much traffic,” Anthony said, showing he has lived in Massachusetts long enough to know that’s a rarity.
Anthony arrived at the park with only his glove, a pair of cleats he borrowed from a Triple A teammate, and one bat, his equipment having been packed away for Worcester’s road trip.
The call also came too late for Anthony’s family to get to the game from Florida. They’ll be here on Tuesday.
“It was nice to finally just take the field and forget about all the outside noise,” Anthony said.
Anthony was given No. 48, which he had in spring training. It’s been a number usually worn by middle relievers over the years, although Pablo Sandoval had it from 2015-17.
Anthony has already been more valuable than the Panda. He has that going for him.
Baseball can be a circle sometimes. Anthony was born on May 13, 2004. Lenny DiNardo, who was on NESN’s pregame and postgame shows Monday, pitched in relief at Toronto that day.
Cash was one of the hitters he faced. The Jays beat the Sox but that season turned out pretty well.
Twenty one years later, Anthony is part of the mix and now this season is much more interesting.
Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him @PeteAbe.
