BOSTON -- When lefty reliever Tyler Samaniego woke up in his apartment at 7:30 on Wednesday morning to go to Polar Park for Triple-A Worcester’s noon contest, he had no idea the course of his life was going to change in two hours.
At 9:30, WooSox manager Chad Tracy had some news.
“He said, ‘We had kind of a long game last night, we need you for some innings,’” said Samaniego. “‘Well, actually they might need a couple of innings in Fenway.’ I was at a loss for words for a little bit.”
With Justin Slaten headed to the 15-day injured list with a right oblique strain, the Red Sox needed an arm, and they called on a 27-year-old who had been yearning for this day for years.
He then got in his car and hauled east for the 44-mile drive to Boston, where the Red Sox were playing at 1:35 against the Brewers.
“Been working so long for this,” Samaniego said. “Bittersweet talking to the family, talking to my mother, my girlfriend, my brother, it was awesome. It was emotional.”
Bittersweet?
“I was thinking about my dad,” said Samaniego. “I lost him [at 65 years old] at the end of the ‘22 season, and he's the one that introduced me to this game.”
But his dad is always present on his mind, and on his Rawlings glove, which has "Rip, Pops" stitched into it.
“I got him on my glove every time I go out there. He’s out there with me,” Samaniego said.
It was already a feel-good story before Samaniego got in the game. And then it got so much better when he struck out the side in the eighth, working around one walk to help the Red Sox preserve a 5-0 win over the Brewers.
“I know he was out there with me,” Samaniego said of his late father, Richard Sr. “So it was just awesome.”
While the impromptu roster callup was thrilling for Samaniego, it didn’t allow time for his family to fly in for the game.
They will be in St. Louis this weekend, where the Red Sox are going to play a three-game series that starts on Friday.
Rest assured, there was hysteria from all those who are closest to Samaniego.
“My brother was fired up. He was at work. He's trying not to scream in his office. My mom, she's freaking out,” Samaniego said.
When the Red Sox acquired Samaniego from the Pirates on Dec. 4, he was part of a package that included righty Johan Oviedo (the headliner in the deal) and Minor League catcher Adonys Guzman. Jhostynxon Garcia -- aka The Password -- went to Pittsburgh along with Jesus Travieso.
“In that trade, he was a guy that was very intriguing, and we got him,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “Besides being a lefty, he has good stuff. This kid, when we pulled the trade, he was a guy that we really wanted. He pounds the strike zone, and it’s an uncomfortable at-bat for lefties.”
On a sun-splashed but chilly afternoon at Fenway, Samaniego quickly made himself at home in one of the most historic sporting venues in the world.
“It was exactly how I imagined it,” Samaniego said. “Jogging in, looking around, taking it all in, locking it in right before I stepped on the rubber, that was awesome.”
It was posed to Samaniego that Wednesday could have been the best day of his baseball life.
He clarified.
“It could be the best day of my life so far,” Samaniego said.
Perhaps Samaniego would have made his debut with Pittsburgh if not for an internal brace procedure on his ulnar collateral ligament that wiped away the second half of his 2024 season.
Last season was about building back up. And Wednesday was a good sign that Boston’s timing was perfect.
What would dad have been like for Wednesday’s debut?
“I probably can’t say it on the microphone [what he would have said], but he would be fired up,” said Samaniego. “He would have been ready. He would have come out here behind the dugout and would have had a beer.”
You can be sure Samaniego will toast one to his pops somewhere between Boston and St. Louis.