Ballou on Baseball - April 23, 2025

By Bill Ballou

The 2025 Worcester Red Sox are a team, to date, that must be even closer to the heart of team president Dr. Charles Steinberg than normal.

This season’s WooSox have turned back the clock to the days of the Earl Weaver Orioles, the team that Steinberg began his baseball career with. It was Weaver, the Hall of Fame manager, who believed the game was all about “pitching, defense and the three-run homer.”

So far, Worcester’s batters are taking the three-run homer part of it literally.

Through the first 19 games of the season, and coming off a very productive visit to Rochester, the WooSox have hit 20 home runs — 13 of them with at least one man on base. That includes three grand slams, something Weaver would have liked even more than a three-run homer.

Generally, about 55 percent of the home runs a team hits in a season are solo shots. Worcester is starting out well above that mark and may come back closer to the norm as the season progresses.

It has been a great start to the year, though. Weaver would be most happy about that.

Some of the early season homer highlights include:

—Roman Anthony led off a game with a home run for the second time in his WooSox career in Game 1 in Rochester on April 17. The only other Worcester batter to do that more than once is David Hamilton with three. Anthony later hit a grand slam in that game and is the only Worcester hitter with a leadoff homer and grand slam in the same game.

—The back to back home runs by Alex Binelas and Vaughn Grissom on April 18 marked the first time WooSox hitters went back to back since last June 27. Worcester’s all-time record when it does that is 30-3.

—No Boston Red Sox batter has hit a grand slam since Luis Urias on Aug. 19, 2023. The Worcester Red Sox have hit nine since then including Ronaldo Hernandez against Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, also on Aug. 19, 2023. The WooSox hit six in 2022, six in 2023 and six in 2024.

—Worcester homered for the cycle in the 20-7 triumph on Friday in Rochester. Marcelo Mayer had the grand slam, Alex Binelas hit the 3-run homer, Nathan Hickey and Abraham Toro added 2-run shots, and Vaughn Grissom and Tyler McDonough both had solo home runs,

The WooSox had done that only once before, also in Rochester last Sept. 7. Edd**y Alvarez* hit three that day including a grand slam and two solo homers. *Bobby Dalbec** hit the 3-run homer and Jamie Westbrook had the 2-run blast.

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TRIPLE-A TRIVIA

1. Who is the only player to be called up to Boston in the same season he was drafted?
2. What southpaw holds the Worcester Red Sox record for most career saves by a left-handed pitcher?

Answers below.

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Worcester’s current homestand is scheduled for 13 games, which would be tied for the longest in team history. That one started in April of 2023, ended in May and was a good one with the WooSox going 9-4. This one features Syracuse and the historic Toledo Mud Hens. Toledo’s roster includes a familar face in Stephen Scott and speaking of three-run homers, he hit six of them during his time in Worcester. Only Ryan Fitzgerald has hit more. … Sincere condolences to WooSox official scorer Bruce Guindon on the passing of his wife, Jo-Ann. They had been married for 56 years. Bruce is Pawtucket through-and-through and was the PawSox longtime official scorer, but makes the trip up Route 146 faithfully to bring experience and class to each game. … It seems as though every time Franchy Cordero is on the scene he is trotting around the bases. Cordero hit 20 homers for the WooSox and hit another one against them in the Rochester series, his third as an opponent. In the group of Worcester players who have hit home runs both for and against the WooSox, only Daniel Palka has more against with nine. … Take away Jack Anderson’s start in Rochester last week and WooSox starting pitchers had a 2.03 ERA heading into the homestand. Shane Drohan and Robert Stock had combind to surrender three earned runs in 35 innings. Worcester pitching has already registered four shutouts. The WooSox didn’t get to four shutouts last year until June 22. … If Vaughn Grissom keeps hitting the way he has been, his days here are probably numbered. With eight doubles already this season, Grisson is on a pace to hit more than 60, an unlikely occurence. The Red Sox Triple-A record in that category is 43. Earl Snyder did that for the 2004 PawSox.

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CATCHING UP WITH….

Catcher Jorge Alfaro, who hit .320 with 6 homers and 30 RBIs for Worcester in the early weeks of the 2023 season, is with the Brewers Triple-A affiliate in Nashville. He is hitting .262 with five homers and 13 RBIs for the Sounds.

Southpaw reliever Joe Jacques, one of a handful of players from Manhattan College to reach the major leagues, is pitching for Oklahoma City, the Dodgers Pacific Coast League affiliate. Jacques has a 1-0 record with a 6.30 ERA for the Comets.

Nick Yorke, Boston’s first-round pick in the 2020 draft, is playing for the Pirates’ Triple-A farm team in Indianapolis. Yorke had a brief and impressive stint in Worcester last season before being traded to Pittsburgh for Quinn Priester but is off to a slow start this season. He has spent time on the injured list and has a .180 average through 10 games.

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TRIVIA ANSWERS

1. Reliever Craig Hansen, who spent parts of three seasons at Triple-A Pawtucket, was a first-round draft choice in 2005 and was promoted to Boston later that season. However, he bypassed Pawtucket in 2005 and was called up directly from Double-A Portland.
2. Lefty Lucas Luetge, at 37, had six saves for the WooSox last season before opting out of his contract and going to Iowa. Those are the most saves, career or single season, any southpaw has had for a Worcester team.