Roman Anthony, Trevor Story already put Red Sox tough roster decisions in rearview

The returns of Roman Anthony and Trevor Story were points of contention around Boston Red Sox Nation. On the one hand, getting back two players of their caliber is hard to wait on. On the other hand, the timing was incredibly awkward.

After a mini slump against the Athletics, Blue Jays, and Pirates, the team got back to form against the Diamondbacks, Giants, and Marlins. Those three straight series wins were also headlined by players at the bottom of the roster.

The D-backs series was the Mickey Gasper series, where he hit a home run in three straight games. The Giants series was all about Nick Sogard and his clutch hitting and on-base skills. The Marlins series saw Gasper have another two big games and Anthony Seigler show his clutch hitting and massive energy. It turned the conversation from when are "Anthony and Story are coming back?" into "do we really want to send some of these guys to Worcester?"

Craig Breslow could have waited to bring Roman Anthony and Trevor Story back to Red Sox, but he chose not to

The timing of it all was also a factor, with September just days away. On September 1, rosters expanded, and each team was allowed to call up one extra hitter and one extra pitcher. The hitter spot could have easily gone to one of the two if they waited a few extra days and saved someone from being optioned. Then, to top it all off, Willson Contreras lands on the IL, meaning one of them could have been his injury replacement.

Craig Breslow decided not to wait, though. On August 30th, Anthony and Story were activated from the IL, with Gasper and Seigler optioned to Worcester. Game one of their returns saw each of them hit a double, with Story's driving in a run too, but the Sox were demolished 16-1. It only took until game two for each to have a major impact in a comeback win, though.

In the first game of the series against the Mariners, the Red Sox completed a three run comeback topped off with an extra innings walks off. In the game, Anthony had an RBI double early that tied it at three, then Story hit a two-RBI double in the eighth to bring the Sox within one, Roman then leads off the ninth with a triple and then became the game tying run, and then Story hit the walk-off single in the 10th.

It took all of two games for the two to have major impacts. All of the questions surrounding their return were squashed because of what they did. The Red Sox have a long way to climb if they want to jump into the top wild-card spot, but the returns of Anthony and Story have already paid dividends in that pursuit.

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