Red Sox Prospect Comes Up Huge In First MLB At-Bat: 'I Was So Calm Up There'

Boston's newest addition delivered in the clutch on Monday

Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox / Getty Images Sport via Getty Images

Boston Red Sox fans witnessed a tear-jerking, Hollywood moment on Monday night at Fenway Park.

With the game tied in the 10th inning and two runners on base for Boston, a 28-year-old stepped into the box for his first Major League at-bat.

That player was Mickey Gasper, whom the Red Sox had just added to their active roster.

Gasper was acquired from the New York Yankees in December and has done nothing but reach base in the minors. In fact, Gasper led all minor leaguers in OBP ahead of his call-up on Monday. No one saw this coming for Gasper, not even the most optimistic of Boston's scouts.

Gasper has defied odds to reach the bigs, and any sports fan with a pulse watching Monday's 10th inning was pulling hard for the pinch hitting Gasper to come up big in the most important moment of his baseball life.

That's exactly what Gasper did.

After falling behind 1-2 in the count, Gasper pushed Texas Rangers reliever Walter Pennington to 3-2 and then took a knee-rattling slider for ball four. It was a cold-blooded take that would impress even the most disciplined of MLB's professional hitters.

Gasper's walk set up a walk-off rope from Rob Refsnyder. After the game, Refsnyder praised Gasper.

"He took a really, really good slider, maybe low," Refsnyder said, per Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic. "Most guys in that moment debut, I know I would have swung over top of that one. ... I mean, that was a huge at-bat."

As the Red Sox stormed the field following Refsnyder's walk-off, no one looked more emotional than Gasper, knowing he had just overcome the odds once again. Embraced by his comrade from the minors Nick Sogard (who has delivered big-time since his own call-up), a misty-eyed, beaming Gasper looked like a symbol for what sports are all about.

Amazingly, an emotional Gasper had kept his feelings in-check at the plate in the 10th, despite the epic, storybook proportions of the moment.

"I was so calm up there," Gasper said after the game, per McCaffrey. "I don’t know what was going through my head. I just felt good. I guess I felt like I was at home."

With at-bats like Gasper's on Monday, Fenway Park could indeed become home for the prospect who is impossible to root against.

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