The bat rested just on the outside of the Red Sox' dugout, one of numerous pieces of equipment strewn throughout the Fenway Park field while batting practice was being taken.
But, upon closer examination, this piece of lumber stood out.
"Aaron Judge. New York Yankees"
The bat belonged to the star player on the team the Red Sox just put in the rearview mirror the day before. But what was it doing int he possession of the Red Sox?
While a spicy storyline would have been something along the lines of the Red Sox making a clandestine mission to secure the item and use it as a sort of pregame trophy, the real story was something much more practical.
It had become Bobby Dalbec's weapon of choice when it came to swinging in batting practice.
"We met (in 2019) and in spring training (this season) I asked him for a couple of bats because I like using heavier bats in BP and he swings a heavy bat," Dalbec told WEEI.com.
The bat used by Judge is 35 inches, 33 ounces, compared to the 34-inch, 32-ounce model Dalbec typically utilities in games.
According to Red Sox bench coach Will Venable, the practice of integrating a different sized bat in BP isn't out of the norm.
"It’s always great to mix up your feel, especially in BP," Venable said. "A great way to do it is putting a different bat in your hands, for sure.
"I tried it with Adrian Gonzalez's bat, which was a 35-33. I legitimate copied every single thing Adrian did to unlock something so I would sometimes use his bat. It didn’t work out well. Just the idea of letting the bat do the work. The way we talked about swings was a lot different then."