Red Sox Prospect No-Hits Yankees in Professional Baseball Debut
Note: I wrote the fictional web story below as part of my final project in my Writing for Mass Communications course during the first year of my undergraduate studies at the University of South Carolina. For this creative writing assignment, I thought it was a no-brainer to focus on my favorite thing in the world: baseball. I produced the written piece below after corresponding with Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, who I will forever be grateful toward for his innate willingness to respond to an email from me as a first-year journalism student and to provide invaluable insight into his oustanding career and exceptional reporting.
Boston Red Sox prospect Hector Ramirez pitched a no-hitter during a Spring Training game against the New York Yankees at JetBlue Park on Friday, March 19 in Fort Myers, Fla.
The 19-year-old pitcher stunned a ballpark crowd of more than 10,500 fans as well as the baseball world on Friday afternoon when he threw a complete-game, no-hit shutout of the New York Yankees during the Red Sox’ fifth Spring Training game of 2018. Ramirez’s no-hitter is the first thrown in the century-plus long history of Major League Baseball’s Spring Training. The feat also marks the first time a Red Sox pitcher has thrown a no-hitter since Jon Lester did so in the 2008 regular season.
After the final Yankees batter grounded out to end the ninth inning, Red Sox players swarmed Ramirez and celebrated with him on the pitcher’s mound. Ramirez, in his first start both on North American soil and against a professional team, recorded 27 outs against 28 batters, struck out nine and issued just one walk en route to hurling nine innings of no-hit baseball.
“I still can’t believe it,” Ramirez told reporters after the game. “Before the first inning, the coaches told me the plan today was for me to throw for three, maybe four innings. But obviously I didn’t expect to do this. I’ve never even faced professional batters before. The Yankees–each of their nine batters–are more than capable at the plate. I’m just very excited.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora’s comments to the media after the game suggest truth behind what Ramirez said. Cora told the media that Ramirez was initially slotted to pitch a maximum four innings in his first professional start. Cora added that prior to the fifth inning, he gestured to Ramirez and watched him ascend the dugout steps and walk to the mound.
“After he cruised through four innings with 33 pitches, how could I not send him out to the bump for another frame?” Cora said.
Prior to the start of Spring Training, the Red Sox announced 14 non-roster invitees would attend Spring Training in addition to the members of the 40-man roster. Among those 14 non-roster invitees was Ramirez.
Yet after the fifth day of Spring Training, Ramirez has generated significantly more buzz than the other 13. His Spring Training teammates think that sentiment can be taken one step further.
“Throwing alongside all of us, going through all of the drills, picking our brains during the last few days… Hector’s been doing what he should be,” Red Sox pitcher David Price said. “Then, out of nowhere, he’s the only guy to ever twirl a no-no in Spring Training history. That’s got to be the best pro-ball debut any of us have very seen.”
Price was not the only person within the organization surprised by Ramirez’s first professional outing. Serving as Red Sox bench coach during Ramirez’s debut was Mike Anderson, who is the Red Sox’ former head of international scouting.
Anderson stood behind a chain-linked fence in the Dominican Republic the first time he saw Hector Ramirez on a baseball field. In July of 2014, Dominican baseball agent Raul Sandoval phoned Anderson and urged him to scout a handful of 18-year-olds at a workout he was hosting.
However, the one player who most impressed Anderson was Ramirez, a 14-year-old at the time. He started the game at shortstop before pitching three scoreless innings against a lineup that consisted of several players a full leap-year older than him. Anderson says he was immediately fixated on that 14-year-old left-hander.
“I don’t know if I will ever replicate that moment as a scout,” he said. “Since then, I have yet to find another young man I knew I wanted to sign and bring into this organization the very first moment I saw him.”
After Ramirez threw the no-hitter against the Yankees, he fielded countless questions from reporters at JetBlue Park. In the midst of it all, he mentioned Anderson.
“I’m incredibly grateful to this organization’s scouting department for giving me a chance,” Ramirez said. “If it wasn’t for Mr. Anderson, none of this would be happening. I treat every moment I spend on a baseball field as if someone is watching me for the first time. I don’t take anything for granted.”
Baseball America named Ramirez Boston’s fifth best pitching prospect and fourteenth best overall prospect in its latest prospect rankings on Jan. 25.
The Red Sox have not yet announced when Ramirez will take the mound next.
