With a flag-stiffening wind giving pop-ups to the infield a chance of making someone look silly and turning lazy fly balls to right field into potential home runs, Hermida was a busy man.
He made every play in right that needed to be made, recording three tricky putouts in the first 2 2/3 innings and tracking down a few hits in the gap.
Then, knowing the lay of the land, the 26-year-old put the Sox on the board in the fourth with a double to the same area of the field, part of a 2-for-3 effort which gave the club another glimpse of why they brought him in.
In Hermida, the Sox have given themselves a more-than-capable outfielder who combines with the three ahead of him on the depth chart to create a remarkably flexible outfield situation.
Most days will see Jacoby Ellsbury in left field, Mike Cameron in center and J.D. Drew in right. But like those three, Hermida has played all the positions at one time or another. Also, his ability to hammer right handers will give him starts in place of Cameron (a career .245 hitter against righties) and his ability to play well in right makes him the first choice to spell Drew ahead of Bill Hall, a fifth guy who has played all outfield positions in his career.
"I think it's a great thing to have guys who can play [multiple positions]," Hermida said. "Ellsbury can play all three, Cameron's played a few and I've played both corners and you have Bill Hall out there who's played some outfield."
It gives manager Terry Francona — who recently said that the idea with Drew is to "play him enough and not play him too much" — a host of options on a daily basis, depending on the matchups.
"I think it's going to be terrific," Francona said of the outfield rotation, stressing the camaraderie which has been built up among the ranks. "They’re out there every morning together, so there's a lot of time spent getting to know each other."
That bonding may be the biggest aspect of Hermida's new baseball life as his career essentially restarts. For years a can't-miss prospect with the Florida Marlins, he became expendable after his production fell off a bit in the past two years.
The former first-round pick hit .296 with 18 home runs in 2007, his first full season, but was just a .253 hitter with a sharply declining slugging percentage over the next two years.
Now he’s been forced to accept a reserve role in a massive market that has a tendency to swallow up bit parts. To do so without a hitch, he is taking plenty from those early morning sessions.
"It's great, we get out there as a group every morning and do our drills together and I've been playing both corners, playing with Cam in center field and Ellsbury in center field," Hermida said. "I'm definitely looking forward to running with those guys and seeing what they do. I just learn from them, all three of them, and to come in and be able to learn from those guys is a great position for me to be in."
Of the group, Hermida has taken gleaned plenty from Drew, a fellow Georgian whose primary spot is also right field. While playing in the National League, Hermida was aware of one of the best at the position, even if others were not.
"He’s definitely under the radar," Hermida said of Drew. "He plays great defense and for some reason it gets overlooked. He's done it for years and always covered the ground, and he makes a lot of things look easy out there."
Hermida is eligible for one year of arbitration before he becomes a free agent after next season, when Drew's run as a Red Sox may end. The chance that the then-28-year-old could slide into Drew's role is a possibility. He would need to improve against left handers (.237 lifetime) and also show that he can handle the quirky dimensions at Fenway Park.
For that he's planning several sessions "when nobody's watching" in order to figure out the angles and bounces, both in right and left.
Roughly 24 hours after his windy afternoon against the Twins, Hermida was camped in left field at a breezy City of Palms Park, where Boston met Baltimore. His only chance this time was a soaring fly ball that he missed at the wall, allowing O's shortstop Pedro Florimon Jr. to scamper to third with a triple.
It was clear on that one play that the comfort level was not what it was a day earlier.
"I've played mostly right throughout my career but I’ve seen a couple of days out in left field," Hermida said. "I'm just trying to get used to it. I’m not quite at home out there in left but it’s good, I’m just getting reps out there in both corner positions."
In a somewhat fluid and very flexible Red Sox outfield, those reps will continue to come. As he was in Hammond Stadium, Hermida will be a busy man.
