Red Sox News: Xander Bogaerts smashes his first home run of 2021

Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts bashes his first home run of 2021

The long wait is now over for Xander Bogaerts as the Red Sox shortstop has finally hit his first home run of the 2021 season. Bogey was one of the few in this lineup that hasn’t taken a pitch out of the park and he decided that he’d waited long enough. It’s taken 17 games for the longest-tenured member of the club to go yard but he made sure to make it a good one.

With Boston losing early to the Toronto Blue Jays he launched a Hyun Jin Ryu fastball to the Monster seats. A Bo Bichette solo shot put the Jays ahead despite Eduardo Rodriguez pitching incredibly well through the early going. Ryu had also been dealing until he gave up a pair of singles to Christian Arroyo and J.D. Martinez. With some ducks on the pond, Ryu left a fastball in the danger zone and Bogaerts went bridge.

Not only was it sweet to hit his first homer of the season but he also moved up the leaderboard and is now tied for fifth place with Joe Cronin for the most home runs by a Red Sox shortstop at 119. Xander has been sneaky good so far this season as he’s getting the hits the team needs when they need them, he just hasn’t left the yard. Now that he has that ghost off of his back I wouldn’t be surprised to see the floodgates open.

Coming into tonight’s series opener with Toronto, Bogey owned a .386/.435/.491/.927 line with six doubles and 4 RBI. Again, it’s wild to think that he’s putting up numbers like that all while not taking pitcher deep. If he can maintain a portion of those small-ball hits while adding in the deep threat then he may find himself in some MVP talks.

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The uncrowned captain of this team has been a longtime foundation for the Red Sox dating back to his debut in 2013. Since then he’s grown into a leader and mentor on this team all while improving his play each and every season. While he’s not talked about in the same way as other elite shortstops are, he should absolutely be in that class. His only drawback is his defense which he is constantly working on in order to improve.

Tonight is all about the homer though and now Bogey can join that club with many of his teammates. We’re two years removed from Xander’s best career mark in homers with 33 in a season where he set career-best levels in damn near everything. Now that he has the first one out of the way it’s just a matter of time before that tally starts to grow and we see him reach those heights again. He’s got some work to do to catch up to J.D. who leads the team with six and even his comrade Rafael Devers has five.

It was just a matter of time before Xander cranked a ball out of the park and it really just comes down to the right pitch at the right time in the right situation. Ryu left a fastball right in his sweet spot, his timing was perfect, and not to mention it was a warm night in Boston. All those factors combined for a blast that opened his 2021 account and got the Red Sox on the scoreboard. Boston is cruising through the first few weeks of the season and the strong batting of Bogey is a big reason for that, now it’s time to put on a power show.