Home runs don’t travel 463 feet every game.
Indeed, Rob Refsnyder’s three-run homer in the first inning of Tuesday’s 6-0 win over the Athletics was both the longest of his career and by a Red Sox player this year.
But left-hander Connelly Early’s big-league debut was unlike anything seen in this organization in over 48 years, as he struck out 11 men to tie Don Aase’s franchise record for a debuting pitcher.
It was also unlike anything ever seen before in Major League Baseball.
Of the 23,599 players in MLB history, Early is only the 17th pitcher to fan at least 11 batters in his debut, and the ninth to do so without allowing a run. The late, great Red Sox legend Luis Tiant also punched out 11 in his MLB debut, but with Cleveland on July 19, 1964. His performance was exactly four years a