Nobody will be coming out and proclaiming the Red Sox are finally getting payback for Babe Ruth. They won't seven suggest the presence of Garrett Whitlock is a pretty decent dagger for the Sox in their rivalry with the Yankees.
But not a word needs to be said.
Saturday night -- and for most of the 2021 season -- actions have spoken louder than words.
Whitlock, an 18th-round selection by the Yankees in the 2017 MLB Draft, gave his old team a first-hand look at what they let go. The rookie reliever came on for starter Eduardo Rodriguez to pitch 1 2/3 scoreless innings on the way to claiming his first major league win.
“It’s amazing huh? That’s how life works and how baseball is," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora after his team's 7-3 win at Yankee Stadium. "We were joking with him, he was going to pitch at this stadium at one point in his career. It just happens to be with us, and he was outstanding today. Velocity was a tick up. Obviously, I bet he was very pumped, and he was amazing. We’re very proud of him.”
“I’m living the dream every day. It doesn’t matter if I’m here or where I’m at," Whitlock said. "It’s such a privilege to be here and I’m so grateful so it doesn’t matter where it is, I’m always living the dream."
When it comes to Whitlock, the Red Sox simply hit the sweet spot.
The kid who underwent Tommy John surgery midway through the 2019 season, only to reappear throwing harder than ever on Instagram a year later. The prospect who simply got buried under a pile of other Yankees minor-leaguers thanks to New York's well-to-do farm system. And, most importantly, a pitcher who the Red Sox simply valued more than most, leading to that Rule 5 selection in December. (For more on how the Red Sox found Whitlock, click here.)
Sure, Alex Cora texted Yankees general manager Brian Cashman earlier in the season jokingly thanking him for Whitlock. But this was better than a text.
There was the fastball that topped out at 98.2 mph. A surprise slider he threw seven times despite previously offering just 10 percent of the time. And, of course, that changeup that hitters are managing just a .115 batting average against.
Whitlock has become one of Alex's best -- and most-needed -- weapons on a team that now sits one game out of first-place, and four games in front of the Yankees.
There is the 1.63 ERA. The 29 strikeouts and just seven walks in 24 innings. And, perhaps most important, the Red Sox' 10-5 record when he pitches.
There were plenty of other feel-good moments for the Red Sox in their third straight win. Eduardo Rodriguez's resurgence with a solid 5 1/3 innings. Rafael Devers' two-hit, two-run, two-RBI night, that included a key, two-out race around the bases on Enrique Hernandez's game-winning, eighth-inning double. And Bobby Dalbec's monstrous homer later in the eighth.
But when it came to feeling good, nothing got hit home -- for the player and the team -- like Whitlock's existence on the Yankee Stadium mound.
"I was definitely hoping to get in there," Whitlock said. "It was a lot of fun to finally get here.”