Roman Anthony's Second Red Sox Season Could Be Exact Opposite of First

The diametric opposition is uncanny...

Sep 3, 2026; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Boston Red Sox designated hitter Roman Anthony (19) reacts to hitting a home run against the Baltimore Orioles as he crosses home plate during the ninth inning at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Roman Anthony is starting to look like his "old self," if we can even call it that so soon in his major league career.

It hasn't been the season Anthony would have hoped for, purely because he hasn't been on the field. But after missing nearly four months with a nagging finger ligament issue, the 22-year-old returned to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday and has since laid waste to opposing pitchers, to the tune of a 10-for-22 line that includes two home runs and a .909 slugging percentage in five games.

Here's what matters most, though: At this time last year, the Boston Red Sox were lamenting Anthony's oblique injury, which proved to be the end of his season. His second year in the majors looks like it could be almost the perfect diametric opposite of his first, and depending on how deep the Red Sox go in October, that might be a good thing.

Eerie one-year callback as Anthony homers again

Sep 3, 2026; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Boston Red Sox designated hitter Roman Anthony (19) hits a home run against the Baltimore Orioles during the ninth inning at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Anthony sustained that oblique injury in the middle of the Red Sox's Sept. 2 game last year against the Cleveland Guardians, which killed a lot of the momentum they'd spent the summer building. Yes, they kept their act together just enough to make it to the playoffs on the final weekend of the regular season, but without Anthony, their offense was a shell of its former self by the wild-card round.

This year, Sept. 2 fell on the day of the Red Sox's third game of their series against the Seattle Mariners. And although Boston got curb-stomped in that game, 8-3, they got a slight glimmer of promise at the end when Anthony launched his second home run of the season and first at Fenway Park.

Then on Thursday, he provided another homer, hit to almost the same part of the park, to add a key insurance run in the Red Sox's 6-5 win against the Baltimore Orioles. It's only his second time going deep in back-to-back games as a big-leaguer.

To put it in its most Hollywood-scripted terms, Anthony basically started his career looking like a superstar, but got hurt late last season, and missed 80% of the Red Sox's games in a one-year span. But as soon as that one-year span ended, to the exact hour in the day when he suffered his original injury, he started hitting bombs again.

Is the Anthony injury curse over? Will he now keep smoking baseballs and lead the Red Sox on a deep playoff run? If so, we'll just have another moment in baseball to look back on that seems too crazy to be true.