Carlos

Narváez

Narváez hit a towering 412-foot blast in the seventh inning over the Green Monster to increase Boston’s lead from 8-0 to 10-0. He also had a key role in an earlier rally by dropping down a squeeze bunt that catcher Nick Fortes wound up throwing into right field. There’s no fantasy value here and Narvaez has had a rough season, hitting .203/.269/.297 while stepping back into a smaller role after playing in 118 games last year. It was a nice game, though.

Narváez said the finger was “sideways” for a time, suggesting that he might have dislocated it. But he apparently won’t miss much time. Connor Wong could start Monday.

Connor Wong replaced him. The Red Sox also have Mickey Gasper as a catcher option, so they wouldn’t need to make a move for another catcher if Narváez needs a couple of days off. Anything more than that, though, and he’ll probably land on the IL. Matt Thaiss or Jason Delay could get the call in that case.

Wong appears to have avoided major injury after rolling his ankle on a bizarre-looking play during the eighth inning of Wednesday’s win over the Phillies. He was replaced by Carlos Narváez behind the plate in the ninth inning of the contest. It doesn’t sound like a massive concern.

Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters that Narváez is fine after being hit by a pitch during Friday’s contest against the Rays. However, he’s going to get some extra time off to recover with Mickey Gasper behind the plate in this one.

Narváez tagged Yankees’ right-hander Cam Schlittler for a go-ahead 383-foot (102.3 mph EV) solo shot in the fifth inning that gave the Red Sox a 2-1 advantage. That would wind up being the extent of their offense. He struck out in each of his other two plate appearances in the ballgame. For the season, the 27-year-old backstop is slashing .245/.273/.340 with one homer and two RBI in his 56 plate appearances.

It hasn’t been a great start to the season for Narváez, who is slashing .234/.265/.277 on the season. The RBI today was his first RBI of the season. That said, he does have a 52 percent hard-hit rate and a league-average zone contact rate. He has just been chasing out of the zone more than he did last year. He should only be on the radar in two-catcher leagues, but we should see a boost in performance coming.

Narváez was scratched from the lineup for unknown reasons on Wednesday, so it’s nice to see him back in there. We should expect regular usage for Narváez going forward. Lefties Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony are also back in the lineup on Friday.

As of now, we have no idea what the issue is, but Narváez said the decision to scratch him was “nothing physical,” and Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, “This is something that happens in every club. Or just happens to be early in the season. It’s the right thing to do.” Hopefully this is just one game absence. Connor Wong will start in his place.

Narváez is now slashing .350/.440/.500 with one home run and six RBI through ten games this spring. The 27-year-old hit .273/.347/.439 with eight home runs in 285 plate appearances to begin last season before suffering a knee injury. He figures to start around 70 percent of Boston’s games behind the dish due to his defensive value, and is a real value in two-catcher fantasy formats.