‘He’s an all-around athlete’: Red Sox rookie Connor Wong jolts some buzz

Can the Boston Red Sox make this a September to remember?  After creating some magic, the night before with a four-run comeback in the final two innings of the game, the Fenway faithful were rewarded with a 9-1 victory over the Texas Rangers headlined by a September callup Connor Wong.

After a few quick stints with the team, the Red Sox rookie highlighted the offensive onslaught with a 439-foot moonshot over the Green Monster on Friday night.

The two-run homer was the first of Wong’s career and really showcased the adjustment he has made with his swing during his recent stint down in the minors.

Boston Red Sox need a player like Connor Wong to emerge

Is it the first or many to reach Lansdowne Street?

The feeling of hitting the first has Wrong wanting more.

"“It was nice, really exciting and something I’ll never forget,” Wrong said following the game, via MLB.com."

With the way he was swinging the bat down at Triple-A Worcester before his callup, there’s a good bet that he’ll round the bases a few more times in September which will help create that buzz this team needs even if they don’t get back into the playoff mix.

As part of the blockbuster deal that sent Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Wong has pretty much been the forgotten part of that deal.  With Alex Verdugo and Jeter Downs getting much of the attention, it would be a nice story if Wong was the one to emerge, especially with the Boston Red Sox in need of an everyday catcher after trading away Christian Vazquez.

Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but it’s good to see a young player work on his swing and see the results.  It’s an energy this team needs, and it showed with the offense continuing to show some life.

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Although Wong’s two-run blast was all the scoring the team needed behind the solid pitching performance of Nick Pivetta (before his injury) and the bullpen, the Red Sox lineup keep the pressure on and fed off their eruption in the late innings of Thursday night’s comeback.  Rafael Devers continued to break out of his slump with another RBI double, Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, Keke Hernandez and Christian Arroyo all drove in runs to continue that good feeling about that team.

But this is about Connor Wong and the prospect of what he could be going forward.  If that swing continues to produce, Red Sox manager Alex Cora sees good things, including a very versatile player offensively and defensively.

"“I think he’s a strong kid and a good athlete,” Cora said.  If you see his batting practice, it’s loud.  Obviously, the swing and miss is part of it.  We’ll keep working with that.  We’ll take it in certain situations, but as you know, we’ve got to do better with men in scoring position, men at third with less than two outs.  But he knows that.“He’s a good baseball player.  Right away, he squared to bunt.  He’s done that a few times in Triple-A.  He’s an all-around athlete.  He can steal bases, and we can move him [on defense] in an emergency.  But I’m happy that he’s here.”"

On a night he’ll never forget, Connor Wong is happy to be back with the big club for an extended look.  How he performs the rest of the way could help the Boston Red Sox see what they have in him and put some excitement into the 2023 MLB season…even if it’s not over in 2022.