Justin Masterson, who went 3-1 with an 0.85 ERA in 14 games for the Lowell Spinners in 2006 and was picked as a reliever on Baseball America’s Short-Season All-Star Team, made his major-league debut for the Red Sox today, less than 20 months after throwing his last pitch in a Lowell uniform. Masterson, the Red Sox’ second-round pick in the 2006 draft, was placed on the fast track and has made a meteoric rise through the system.
Called up from Class AA Portland, where he was 1-0 with an 0.95 ERA in four starts for the Sea Dogs, Masterson pitched six innings against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, allowing just two hits and one run to a team that is second in the league in hitting and third in runs. He walked four and struck out four and got 15 of his 18 outs on groundballs or strikeouts. The only run he allowed came on a 1-2 pitch to Mike Napoli in the fifth that was slammed into the center-field bleachers.
“I’m impressed and proud,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “He handled himself just like I hoped, and that’s what I wanted to see from a kid coming out of Double-A. He competed, he had composure, he knew what he wanted to to, and he did it.
“He knows his strengths. He’s going to be a pretty good pitcher.”
Masterson, summoned because the Red Sox rotation has been in disarray for three days because of injuries and illness, was sent back to Portland after the game. Reliever Bryan Corey was brought up from Pawtucket.
Masterson thought Portland pitching coach Mike Cather was kidding when he was told he was going to the big leagues.
“He said: ‘Are you ready for your start tomorrow?’ I said yeah, but wondered why he was asking me that. Then he told me I was going up,” Masterson said. “I thought maybe I was going up to Pawtucket. When he told me Boston, I didn’t think he was serious.
“After about 10 minutes, I asked him: ‘Am I really going?’ And he said yeah.”
Masterson said that having already pitched at Fenway when the Spinners played the Oneonta Tigers in the Futures at Fenway game in 2006 helped his confidence. But he said he wasn’t nervous at first.
“I got through the first inning, and then I realized I had to go out and to it again,” he laughed. “That’s when the nervousness set in.”
His parents flew in from Ohio to see him pitch today. Some close friends also flew in, and his wife, Meryl, was also in attendance.
He knew he was going back to Portland after the game.
“When the time comes again that I’m needed,” he said, “I think I showed I’m ready to go.”
Masterson became the 34th player developed by the Spinners to appear in the major leagues. He is the first member of the Red Sox’ Draft Class of 2006 to make it to the majors.