When Josh Reddick, Ryan Pressly, and Alex Bregman burned the Red Sox in a 7-2 Game 1 win Saturday, they didn’t just do so…
When Josh Reddick, Ryan Pressly, and Alex Bregman burned the Red Sox in a 7-2 Game 1 win Saturday, they didn’t just do so against the team with the best record in baseball this season.
They also torched the team that initially drafted them, leaving a cynic to naturally wonder what could have been.
In addition to their role as current Astros teammates, the three players all share a common thread from their past. The Red Sox selected Reddick in the 17 th round of the 2006 MLB Amateur Draft, Pressly in the 11 th round of the 2007 MLB Amateur Draft, and Bregman in the 29 th round of the 2012 MLB Draft.
Reddick, who played three years in Boston to start his career, smashed a 419-foot solo home run to right-center in the ninth inning to extend the lead to 4-2 Saturday. The blast was a huge insurance run at the time, and the Astros went on to bust the game open by scoring three more times in the inning.
Pressly, meanwhile, went 7-5 with a 5.38 ERA in 34 games between Single-A Salem and Double-A Portland before joining the Minnesota Twins organization. He tossed a dominant seventh inning in Game 1, striking out Brock Holt, Jackie Bradley, and Christian Vazquez. Eduardo Nuñez reached on an error, but Pressly had no problem preserving the one-run lead on 18 pitches.
When the Red Sox took Bregman in the 29 th round in 2012, he opted not to sign with the team. He eventually became the No. 2 overall pick in 2015, and he’s blossomed into a star for the Astros ever since.
On Saturday, he did all of his damage without registering a hit and had more runs than at-bats. He scored to make it 3-2 Astros in the sixth, and then cruised home again on Yuli Gurriel’s three-run shot in the ninth. Bregman was also a machine at third base, making several difficult plays look routine.
The Red Sox got some production from familiar faces in Game 1, only now those familiar faces are members of the opposition.
