Next man up? Red Sox speedster with ‘cool’ moment among top 5 players who will help Boston sooner than later

Roman Anthony and Wilyer Abreu stole most of the Red Sox -related headlines during the World Baseball Classic. Anthony crushed a go-ahead home run to lead the United States to a semifinal victory over the Dominican Republic. Abreu belted a go-ahead homer to lift Venezuela over Japan in the quarterfinals.

Nate Eaton also delivered quite an exciting moment, although it didn’t grab as much attention. Eaton, playing for Great Britain, hit a leadoff home run on the first pitch against the United States in a pool play game. And it came against two-time defending American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal.

“It was definitely a cool experience,” Eaton said. “Obviously going into the at-bat, I wasn’t necessarily trying to do that at all. I was just looking for a good pitch to hit and I got it first pitch.

” Eaton connected on a 94 mph fastball from Skubal and sent it 390 feet to center field with a 102. 5 mph exit velocity. Opponents batted just .