Connor Wong caught all nine innings and went 2 for 4 in Wednesday afternoon’s series finale with the Washington Nationals, a 10-2 Boston Red Sox loss.
When it was over, the Red Sox catcher weighed himself. He’d lost six pounds over the course of the three-hour and five-minute game.
“It was a hot one,” Wong said.
Interim manager Chad Tracy pregame noted how team trainers prepare the players for such brutal conditions, including urging them to hydrate as much as possible before coming to the ballpark.
“(They) prepare them for that,” Tracy said. “I think (players) felt it. Yeah, it was warm yesterday, and humid, so they could feel it coming.”
Still, there’s only so much anyone can do for a group of athletes playing outdoors when it’s 95 degrees at the 1:36 p.m. ET first pitch. Wong went through two jerseys, and drank “countless waters, some Pedialyte” to keep cool and hydrated to the best of his ability.
“Tough, tough day today,” Tracy said postgame. “I mean, it was hot. Very hot, very humid. They pushed (starter Payton Tolle) to 40-plus (pitches) in the first two innings. In that heat, I think just the quality of at-bats, the long at-bats, it wore him down a little bit. And then it showed up again there in the fourth where you see him kind of start to fatigue.”
But neither starter nor catcher were willing to blame the heat wave for their second consecutive loss.
“I try not to see that as an excuse,” Tolle said. “I’ve pitched in hot days 1,000 times before, so I don’t really see that as an excuse. I think it just made too many pitches, and made innings longer than they needed.”
“I mean, it’s hot, but they’re playing in it, too,” Wong said. “You’ve just got to try and find ways to cool down a little bit when you get the chance in between innings. Both teams are playing in it, so I don’t think we’re gonna use that as an excuse. It was hot, but they played in it, too.”