A year ago, when Bobby Poyner was pitching at Single-A, he couldn't have imagined he was months away from winning a home opener at Fenway Park.
But after earning the confidence of manager Alex Cora during a strong spring, the 25-year-old found himself on the mound on Thursday in a situation that mattered.
He had already pitched a scoreless 11th, but repeating that trick in the 12th would require stranding the go-ahead run at third in a 2-2 game. He bore down and struck out Kevin Kiermaier to maintain the tie before earning his first big-league win when Hanley Ramirez delivered a walkoff single in the bottom of the frame.
Consider it a dream granted.
"Obviously I was very excited, but I was trying to keep my emotions in check, stay calm, and make pitches," Poyner said. "Before the final strike, it was, 'Obviously, we've got to leave this guy on third base.' Once I got it, it was relief."
Poyner's fourth appearance dropped his ERA to 1.93 and included his sixth strikeout in 4 2/3 innings.
"He's got the confidence from us and the coaching staff and everybody," Ramirez said. "That's all you need from everybody is confidence. Go out there and do your job."
A 14th-round pick in 2015 out of Florida, Poyner posted a 2.35 ERA over three seasons in the minors while striking out 10.1 batters per nine innings. He took his game to another level by learning to pitch up and down in the strike zone despite only throwing around 90 mph.
"I'd say I kind of started doing that, mostly I would say within the last year and a half," Poyner said. "I really got good at it when I got to Portland. That was really the emphasis – the fastball up and the changeup down."
As a result, Poyner gets a W next to his name for the first time as a big leaguer.
"Today was awesome," he said. "Just building on each outing, keep improving, keep working on my pitches. Today was awesome."
