Walter harkens back to 1944 in 20-out relief debut

MINNEAPOLIS -- For his Major League debut on Thursday afternoon with the Red Sox, lefty prospect Brandon Walter had a very modern-day type of assignment.

His job was to provide a bulk-inning performance behind opener Justin Garza.

Give Walter credit for putting bulk on top of that bulk. Boston’s No. 7 prospect (per MLB pipeline) went 6 2/3 innings for the Sox, turning in a respectable performance in which he allowed three runs in his team’s 6-0 loss to the Twins at Target Field.

The last time a Boston pitcher provided 20 outs or more in an MLB debut in relief? You’d have to go back to Clem Hausmann, who went eight innings in a game the Red Sox lost in 16 innings on April 28, 1944.

Yes, it had been a while.

“Definitely some positives and some bad things. It was a blast obviously getting to pitch in my first big league game,” said Walter. “I was trying not to think about that aspect of it too much. I just wanted to kind of keep us in the game. Give us length. Save the other bullpen guys and just try to get quick innings. I was able to do that some innings. Other innings, it kind of got away from me. I think overall, pretty good.”

Heading into a three-game, weekend series in Chicago against the White Sox, Walter indeed re-set the bullpen for manager Alex Cora.

“It was a good one,” said Cora. “He was able to move the ball around the strike zone. We were talking about it. Usually when they come out, we start thinking about guys who he reminds you of. Very [Ryan] Yarbrough-like, a few years ago, with the cutter and sinking it, throwing [the ball] up and down. That was a good one.”

Perhaps the most impressive part of the day for Walter is that he did it with no fastball command.

“Fastball command was honestly terrible,” said Walter. “Went to the cutter, went to the changeup, went to the slider and was able to get ahead with those and create soft contact, and then get through those innings pretty quickly.”

What Walter learned about himself in his first MLB outing is that he can adapt on the fly, even at the highest level of baseball.

“Maybe I learned a little bit about myself, that I can compete at this level,” said Walter. “And next time they give me the ball, hopefully they have confidence that I can do that again, you know, go out and give them multiple innings, give them different looks multiple times through the lineup. So I think I just learned a little bit about myself, I’d say.”

Given that Walter won’t be able to pitch for another five days or so, there’s more than a good chance the Red Sox will option him to Triple-A Worcester before they take the field in Chicago on Friday.

But Walter has earned another chance to be in the team’s plans in the coming weeks. Right now, the bottom of Boston’s rotation is fluid. Chris Sale is out until at least August with a stress reaction in his shoulder, and Tanner Houck is having surgery for a facial fracture next week.

Kutter Crawford is filling in for Sale, but the Sox might have to piece together Houck’s spot for at least the next couple of weeks.

“We’ve got two off-days [coming up],” said Cora. “The guys will pitch on regular rest this weekend. We're going to give them one more, an extra day, going into the Marlins/Toronto series. We'll use Monday, but we’ll still give them an extra day. And then after that we get another off-day, and then we'll talk about how we’re going to do it all the way through the All-Star break.”

On Thursday, Walter didn’t need to worry about any of those details. He simply embraced his first day in “The Show," and shared it with his family, who flew in from Delaware.

When Cora came to get Walter with two outs in the eighth, the manager gave him some advice.

“I think I just gave him the ball like normal. I was going to walk off but he stopped me,” said Walter. “He was like, ‘Hey, like where's your family?’ I told them they were up top. He was like, ‘Make sure to give them a look when you walk in, hold your head high.’ And he just kind of congratulated me for that big moment.”