The pitcher sprinted across the line toward the Fenway Park mound. He circled the dirt like aa caged lion before finally settling in and locking in on his catcher. And then came the toss.
"Aaahhh!!!"
With each Zack Godley pitch came an accompanying grunt. With every action came some sort of reaction. No fans and no crowd noise only made the dynamic easier to identify.
It turns out one of the newest Red Sox pitcher is actually a middle linebacker who just happens to be good at throwing a baseball.
"That's how I approach the game," Godley told WEEI.com. "One of the main things I have had to do is rein that stuff in because I tend to let that get ahead of everything else. The biggest thing for me is calming myself down and try and be a little bit smoother. But that's the way I pitch and that's the way I am. So it's kind of hard to go against who I am."
As for the grunts?
"I didn't notice it all," he responds matter-of-factly.
"Guy goes hard in every aspect of his game," said one National League executive.
While the results have yet to be determined, the approach has been locked in for some time.
This whole fit of intensity is hardly contrived or purposedly constructed. As he explained, its origins are simple.
"I've always been that way," the 30-year-old explained. "I've always been that intense on the mound. I carry that into each and every outing regardless of whether it's an intrasquad or a regular game. It doesn't matter.
"When I was a kid I didn't pitch. I think it was born from me being a football player, honestly. I was a football player who played baseball for fun. I didn't start pitching until my junior year of high school."
It turns out up until that junior year at Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School in South Carolina -- (and, yes, he is southern through and through, peppering the interview with "Yes sir" and "No sir") -- the sole focus was playing football in college. But his coach, local legend David Horton, who had mentored the likes of Mookie Wilson, convinced his catcher there was another position that Godley should look into.
"Going into my junior year of high school we lost some of guys. I was playing just to stay in shape for football and I enjoyed it. I thought it was fun," he remembered. " I was a catcher and an outfielder going into my junior year. ... (Horton) came up to me when we first started and told me he wanted to pitch. I had a good arm and could throw it really well. I just had no idea where it was going. He got me on the mound and got me started with it. Once I got it going it kind of snowballed. It took off."
Godley went on to lead his team to a state title, which garnered enough attention to allow for the Mets to draft him in the 50th round of the 2009 MLB Draft. It didn't matter that it was the 1,514 overall selection, with only seven more players being picked after him. The signs were there. It was time to push football to the back-burner.
"When I got drafted that was kind of an indication that maybe baseball was a better route to take for something to try instead of trying to play football," he said.
First came junior college and then three years pitching for the University of Tennessee. That ultimately allowed for a 10th-round selection by the Cubs, paving the way for what has been a five-year major-league career that was highlighted with 15 wins for the Diamondbacks in 2018.
Godley has some work to do in order to re-establish himself as a legitimate starting rotation option, a reality he accepted when traveling up to Massachusetts in the offseason to begin his work with Eric Cressey and his team at Cressey Sports Performance. The righty's velocity had dipped over the past couple of years and it was his goal to rediscover it through a better understanding of that 6-foot-3 frame.
"It's been awesome," said Godley of is work with CSP. "It's helped me out a lot. It helped me get a really good feel for where my body is and where it needs to be. It's been a huge benefit for me this offseason. It's helped me with body awareness. Find where I was lacking. Mobility. Hands. Those guys do a really good job. ... The downfalls I had between 2018 and '19 with the velo going down, it really helped me to sit down with those guys and kind of get that stuff figured out."
And now it has led him to this opportunity with the Red Sox.
It's a long way from those football fields in South Carolina, although Godley's approach toward the moment doesn't seem to have changed a lick.
"Honestly, it was kind of one of those things where it's a great opportunity," he said of signing the minor-league deal with the Red Sox. "There's some room here for me to be able to try and help this team. It was just a great spot. It just seemed right."
