NEW YORK -- There was no sighting of Roman Anthony late Tuesday night. Inside the clubhouse, his locker sat vacant. His Red Sox teammates sat nearby, too, coping with the aftermath of a 9-0 drubbing by the Yankees in Game 1 of this best-of-three AL Wild Card Series.
Yet the night carried an even deeper concern. Anthony's vacancy in the clubhouse mirrored his absence on the field. In the top of the sixth inning, the Red Sox's prized 22-year-old was removed from the game with the same hand and finger injury that cost him 101 games this season.
"The hand," Boston manager Chad Tracy said about Anthony in a low tone after the loss. "He took a check swing and then another swing and his hand flared on him. And it got uncomfortable, so we had to make a move there."
The hand.
It's bugged Anthony all season during a diluted second year in the majors. Boston didn't expect Anthony to miss much time. But the injury never responded -- not to treatment, nor to the swing that had made him one of the best young players in the game. One the Red Sox were certain could carry a load, even as he continued growing into his slender shoulders.
The hand created so much dialogue. So many opinions over the course of this season. The partial tendon and ligament tear had some within baseball circles questioning Anthony's toughness. The Red Sox even tried a change of scenery, sending Anthony to Fort Myers, Fla., in early July to continue his rehab at their spring training complex. Maybe that would push him along.
It didn't. The hand continued to bother him.
And so much changed in his absence.
The Red Sox even ripped off a 15-game winning streak without him. But for all they accomplished while Anthony watched, they knew there would come a point when they would need him.
And on Tuesday, with the Red Sox trailing just 2-0 in the sixth, that moment arrived. Only it was Andruw Monasterio, not Anthony, who stepped to the plate against the dominant Cam Schlittler.
"It's difficult," Tracy said. "Obviously, it flares up on him and becomes uncomfortable, and you have to make a move there. So we'll see what the next steps are, but yeah, it was difficult."
In truth, Anthony's absence late in this contest wasn't the difference-maker. Schlittler had too much to do with suppressing Boston's offense, tilting the scale firmly in his club's favor.
His 6 ⅓ innings were dominant, adding to his postseason lore against the team he grew up cheering for. He struck out 10 and induced 24 whiffs. Schlittler, known for the three variations of his fastball that continued to smother Red Sox hitters, added another headache Tuesday: a devastating curveball that generated eight swings and misses on its own.
"He used his curveball a little bit more than usual, and obviously it worked," Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story said. "We did a good job of making him work and getting his pitch count up, but just didn't do enough to have a big moment or gather any extra-base hits or put any runs on the board."
"He dominated every pitch," said Wilyer Abreu, who had one of the two hits off Schlittler. "He made really good pitches."
Facing Schlittler on the road at Yankee Stadium was about as unforgiving a matchup as the Red Sox could draw. Fans bellowed chants of MVP. They chanted his name. The crowd never had to question his outing. The pressure never amounted to pressure. The angst never consumed the moment.
Because Schlittler -- a second-year player, just like Anthony -- imposed his will, toying with Red Sox hitters, announcing, for a second straight year, that they had no business sharing this stage with him.
"The natural adrenaline, just the environment and how loud it was, I think definitely helped," Schlittler said. "Just being able to lean on that."
The Red Sox, who face elimination Wednesday night, are unsure what Anthony's status will be moving forward. They're unsure whether he'll need another MRI. What is certain, though, is that this series becomes even murkier without him. Anthony, who led off Tuesday night, represented so much of what the Red Sox believed they had been missing. Against Schlittler and a Yankees staff built on velocity -- something Boston's lineup has struggled with collectively -- he was perhaps their best answer.
"He's obviously coming off that [initial injury]," Tracy said. "With that, you'll get a zinger every once in a while where you feel something, it's fine, it goes away. But today it was obviously coming out of the game. Today some stuff happened that was more serious and was uncomfortable."
Now, the hand brings back a question that followed Anthony throughout the summer: Can the Red Sox count on him to stay on the field?
