Boston Red Sox’s Connor Wong records hit in first MLB at-bat but ‘calmness’ catching Nathan Eovaldi was even more impressive

BOSTON — Boston Red Sox prospect Connor Wong recorded a hit in his first major league at-bat Saturday.

The 25-year-old catcher — one of the prospects the Red Sox acquired from the Dodgers in the Mookie Betts trade — connected on a 92.2 mph sinker from Yankees starter Jordan Montgomery and hit it 100.2 mph to the opposite field for a single.

His work behind the plate catching Nathan Eovaldi stood out even more in the Red Sox’s 4-2 win over the Yankees here at Fenway Park.

Eovaldi tossed 7 ⅔ innings, allowing just one run, seven hits and no walks. He struck out six.

“There’s some calmness,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said about Wong. “The way he sets up. He’s not panicking back there.”

Wong caught Eovaldi back in Houston during the COVID shutdown last season and again during this offseason.

“Wong did amazing,” Eovaldi said. “I think it was like a perfect situation for him to be able to get in that game. We were able to throw together all offseason and during the COVID break. So he’s familiar with my stuff.”

Wong added, “I think it helped a lot to have an established relationship with him and kind of have a good feel for what his pitches do and how they work off each other.”

Cora let Eovaldi know Wednesday that Wong was going to catch him Saturday. 

“So I was able to whisper in his ear a little bit, let him know how I like to pitch these guys,” Eovaldi said. “Fortunately, I’m familiar with these guys as well. I can’t say enough about how well he did back there. We were on the same page from the get-go. I didn’t really have to shake that many times. And he was framing the ball really well.”

Eovaldi has allowed one or zero earned runs in six of his seven starts vs. the Yankees with the Red Sox. He has a 2.20 ERA (10 earned runs, 41.0 innings) against New York as a member of the Red Sox.

“Everything felt really good for me tonight other than the splitter,” Eovaldi said. “But I was still able to mix that in early in the counts just to keep the hitters off of it.”

Eovaldi got 14 swings-and-misses: five with his curveball, four with his slider, four with his four-seam fastball and one with his splitter.

This was the deepest he had gone in a start since Aug. 14, 2018 vs. the Yankees.

“The fastball command was there,” Eovaldi added. “I was able to throw it inside. We were able to establish that early in the game and I think that opened it up as far as later in the game as well. It helped the slider out a lot, kept them off balance and the curveball played really well, too.”