It’s odd to feel this much consternation after such a big, emotional win, but the uneasiness is inescapable. On the surface, Fenway Park was electric tonight! The Red Sox aren’t just back as a team, they feel back as a phenomenon. There’s a packed house every night hanging on every pitch. But lurking just beyond the boundary of the thills and excitement of this particular ballgame is the immanent potential for disastrous news on Roman Anthony tomorrow.

On one hand, the 2025 Red Sox once again showed they’re made of special stuff – Their ace got battered around, their young stud left with injury, multiple guys had to move positions twice in the game, and tomorrow’s starter ended up pitching the ninth inning as the Sox continue to get more creative in their attempt to keep the bottom half of this pitching staff on the tracks. And despite all of that, this group of contagious competitors once again proved resilient and managed to cook up pair of rousing offensive innings in the 6th and the 8th, ultimately culminating another thrilling comeback victory.

Here’s a couple of the most important highlights:

So I keep trying to tell myself — The dominant feeling after this game should be elation.

Elation in the way the team picked up Crochet after he’s picked them up all season. Jubilation in the fact the team is 13-3 in Crochet’s last 16 starts despite him surrendering four home runs tonight (three of them coming to guys batting under .160 on the season). The good feeling should about how every single batter in the starting lineup had at least one hit, and how each of the bottom six hitters in the lineup had at least two hits. And of course, it should be about how the guys in that clubhouse keep fighting for each other and routinely find ways to win games when the odds seem stacked against them.

Hell, it could even be a slightly off topic brand of excitement regarding how great of a product Red Sox baseball has become: Tonight’s game, in a perfect encapsulation of what baseball should be in the pitch timer era, saw a combined 18 runs and 29 hits, and it still only took 2 hours and 26 minutes to complete. Everyone in that ballpark got their money’s worth, and probably still left Fenway wanting more.

But unfortunately, none of those things have the largest hold on my mood tonight. I just want Roman Anthony to be Okay. If Wednesday’s MRI reveals bad news on his oblique, this team is probably screwed. As much as they’ve overcome, Anthony’s a lynchpin at the top of the lineup, a calming presence to lead off a game, and a steady, reliable rock in the outfield. The team is 17 games over .500 when he plays, and one game under when he doesn’t. Despite evidence tonight to the contrary, I’m not sure they can overcome the loss of Anthony’s presence for any extended period of time, because let’s face it, they’re going to face some much better pitching over the next few weeks than Cleveland featured tonight.

Here’s Roman on his injury after the game:

Back in ancient times, a Greek king named Pyrrhus became famous for winning a battle against (oddly enough) the Romans, but in doing so endured such heavy casualties, the result was tantamount to a loss. Hence the term, Pyrrhic Victory.

Hopefully, tonight’s game won’t result in a long-term loss of a Roman, or ultimately be seen as a Pyrrhic victory for the Sox.

Ceddanne Rafaela: 3-4 with four RBI and the big blast in the sixth inning that answered right back to tie the game immediately after Garrett Crochet puked all over himself.

Masataka Yoshida: He had three hits in this game including a big double in that all important sixth inning. Ideally, I’d like to see him do this against better pitching, but hey, we’ll take whatever we can get right now.

Trevor Story: He’s here for being an all around stud in multiple facets of the game. He played great defense at short, stole his 25th base on the year (he still hasn’t been caught all season), and then hit this beautiful double the other way to right that kept Chapman from being needed in the ninth inning.

The bullpen (Garrett Whitlock, Justin Slaten and Brennan Bernardino): In a game that felt out of control when Garrett Crochet walked off the mound, they contained the fire and didn’t allow another Cleveland run to cross the plate.

Garrett Crochet: Coughing up a 5-1 lead is always bad. Coughing up a 5-1 lead by serving up four home runs to those hitters while in a division race in September is borderline inexcusable. The only reason it’s not a bigger story is because of all the other crazy stuff that happened in this game.

Rob Refsnyder: A bit of a tough one here, but he’s the only Boston batter to get in the box tonight and not have at least one hit.

The Injury Bug: FUCK YOU!!!

Unless he somehow avoids the IL, it’s hard to see how anything more impactful happened in this game than Roman Anthony’s injury. This sucks!