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Red Sox’ ‘obviously insane’ MLB debut club now includes 2 Rule 5 Draft picks
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- Red Sox’ ‘obviously insane’ MLB debut club now includes 2 Rule 5 Draft picks
CINCINNATI — Garrett Whitlock’s major league debut came in a low-leverage spot as a Red Sox Rule 5 Draft pick five years ago.
Manager Alex Cora eased Whitlock into the big leagues, putting him in with the Red Sox trailing the Orioles 10-0 at Fenway Park on April 4, 2021.
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In contrast, fellow Rule 5 Draft picks Justin Slaten and Ryan Watson were thrust into more stressful situations.
“Both situations are obviously insane,” Slaten said Sunday, one day after Watson made his MLB debut in Boston’s 6-5, 11-inning loss to the Reds on Saturday.
Watson replaced reliever Danny Coulombe with two runners on base and two outs in the sixth inning with Boston down two runs. He walked the first batter he faced to load the bases.
The 27-year-old righty then appeared to strike out slugger Eugenio Suárez twice on called third strikes, but both calls were overturned to balls when Suárez used the ABS system to challenge. Watson had to refocus twice . With the count full, he finally retired Suárez on a groundout to second base.
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“His was a little bit better outcome. He didn’t get walked off like I did,” Slaten said. “So I’m sure that that was a little bit better feeling.”
Slaten’s MLB debut came March 30, 2024, in Seattle . With then-Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen unavailable because of back tightness , Cora sent Slaten into a 3-3 game with one out and runners on the corners in the 10th inning. Star Julio Rodríguez connected on an 86 mph sweeper from Slaten for a walk-off RBI single . Seattle won 4-3.
Slaten said of Watson’s debut, “It was definitely a crazy situation. And it’ll definitely be a funny story for him to tell that in his first inning pitching in the majors he struck a batter out twice and then had to get him to ground out.”
Slaten said it would have been easy for Watson to lose focus.
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“For it to not only happen once, but to happen twice — like the emotional part of getting that strike and then like, ‘Oh, (expletive). I’ve got to do it again,’" Slaten said. “Then you do it again, you get it, you’re like, ‘Oh, my gosh, now a third time.’ I had it happen to me in the first outing (this year) where two balls in a row got challenged (but) neither of them were for strikeouts. It was just the first batter, and I was like, ‘What the heck?’”
Watson returned for the seventh with the Red Sox down 5-4 and threw scoreless seventh and eighth innings. He finished with three walks and one strikeout in 2 ⅓ scoreless innings.
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