Triston Casas made the most of his Major League Baseball debut Sunday while impressing Red Sox manager Alex Cora and the Boston fans who long waited for his arrival.
Casas, who was called up from Triple-A Worcester on Sunday prior to Boston's series finale against the Texas Rangers, recorded his first big league hit and made a handful of impressive defensive plays. The 2018 first-round pick acknowledged how his first MLB appearance lived up to the hype.
"Yeah, stepping out on the field for the first inning was pretty surreal," Casas told NESN's Jahmai Webster after the Red Sox earned a 5-2 victory over the Rangers. "Getting the two ground balls out of the way and then making contact my first at bat, that was pretty cool."
Casas made contact in all four of his at-bats Sunday. In his first plate appearance during the four-run first inning, he drove a pitch from Texas starter Dane Dunning into deep right, a long fly that flirted with the right-field wall.
"I'm actually surprised it went as far as it did," Casas said postgame, as seen on NESN. "I got it off the end of the bat. I guess I was a little excited, a little antsy, pulled it a bit. But yeah, that first at-bat I didn't even feel my body so I'm glad I even made contact."
His first hit came on an infield single to the shortstop in the fifth inning.
"I was really satisfied," Casas told Webster. "I stayed in there against the lefty with two strikes, took a good approach and used the other part of the field. Yeah, just went in there tried to be aggressive early in the count, figured they would try to challenge me. Not exactly how I imagined getting my first hit, but I'll take them any way they come."
They're certainly will be many more to come for Boston's No. 2 prospect.
Here are more notes from Red Sox-Rangers:
-- On a day that was headlined by Casas, Trevor Story was the, well, story of Sunday's game. The Red Sox second baseman recorded three hits including a three-run blast in the first inning which proved to be all Boston needed.
"Yeah, it's fun. I hit the ball hard a few times and helped out the pitcher when we can. Used my speed a little bit, too," Story said, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "So, yeah, all around a pretty fun game to be a part of."
Story added a highlight-reel defensive play, as well.
"I felt like I high-pointed that one pretty good," he said. "Definitely, I would say that's probably my highest jump, yeah."
-- Manager Alex Cora was pleased with the four-game sweep in large part because of the way the Red Sox have played on both offense and defense.
"The process has been good. A lot of base runners lately," Cora said, as seen on NESN. "We got to keep rolling. We go to Tampa, we know how it works. Keep winning series. That's the most important thing. We're playing good baseball. We're playing good defense, I think that's the difference."
-- Xander Bogaerts complemented Boston's offensive effort with three hits of his own. It marked the eight straight game where Bogaerts recorded two or more hits, the longest streak in MLB this season.
-- Bobby Dalbec was sent to Triple-A Worcester in the corresponding roster move with Casas arriving to Boston.
-- The Red Sox travel to Tampa Bay with a three-game series against the Rays starting Monday. You can check out the Labor Day clash with first pitch set for 4 p.m. ET on NESN, following an hour of pregame coverage.
