BOSTON — Red Sox rookie Ryan Kalish hit the ball well in his first game for Boston on Saturday afternoon vs. the Detroit Tigers, and he did not let up in his second game yesterday.
Kalish went 2 for 4 with an RBI on Saturday in his Major League Baseball debut.
He added an RBI on a sacrifice fly yesterday.
Kalish was drafted in the 9th round of the 2006 Amateur Draft straight out of Red Bank Catholic High School in New Jersey. Kalish is the No. 2 prospect in the Red Sox farm system behind pitcher Casey Kelly.
"We have to be a bit careful here," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona about Kalish.
"A kid comes up here and gets two hits, and he is going to Cooperstown," Francona said, jokingly. "He is a good young player and we really like him. He didn't have to get hits for us to feel that way."
The Red Sox think that Kalish is going to help right away because of his energy and intensity.
"We were looking to make some changes to our outfield mix a little bit in anticipation of (Jacoby) Ellsbury coming back next week as well," GM Theo Epstein said Saturday. "We just felt we needed to get a little bit more offense from our outfield if we could. We were looking to upgrade in the trade market and when it was clear that wasn't going to materialize we decided rather than putting someone like a Ryan Kalish in a deal that we would regret someday — that the way his development is going — that he's ready for a trial here at the major league level.”
"He brings a lot of energy," Epstein added. "He brings an advanced approach to the plate. He brings a solid, all-around game. Those are things that we could use right now."
Kalish might remind some Red Sox fans of one particular "dirt dog" from the 2004 World Series team.
"He is like the incarnation of Trot (Nixon)," said Francona. "He is going to go as hard as he can all the time, and if he makes a mistake it will be from him being overly aggressive."
Kalish, 22, has been playing well this season between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Pawtucket. Kalish hit .294 with 13 home runs and 25 steals for the two teams combined.
Kalish was taken by surprise when he got word he had been called up to the Red Sox.
"It came out of no where," he said. "I was getting ready to play down there (Pawtucket), and they just said, 'Hey let's go.'"
After a great debut Kalish still is nervous about playing in the majors.
"It's one of those things where you just got to keep going," he said. "I'm not too confident. I just want to get up here and help us win."
Written by:
