BOSTON -- The way Andrew Benintendi saw it, his job in the fifth inning Tuesday night was to drive home the go-ahead run for the Boston Red Sox. It hardly mattered to him how he did it.
To anyone suggesting Benintendi, 22, might be disappointed that a video review turned what would have been his first major league home run in his first game at Fenway Park -- and with his proud parents in the stands -- into an RBI double, he smiled politely and said he still accomplished his goal.
"It was fine. I was happy with whatever outcome [the umpires] saw," Benintendi, a rookie left fielder, said after the Red Sox won 5-3 in the opener of a three-game series against the New York Yankees. "My job was to get that run in from third base, and I did. So it really was irrelevant at that point."
Called up last week from Double-A Portland only 14 months after being drafted in the first round out of the University of Arkansas, Benintendi finished 3-for-3 with two runs and one RBI, continuing a stellar first week in the big leagues. The Red Sox initially planned to start him only against right-handed pitchers, but with eight hits in his first 16 at-bats, he has played his way into an everyday role, according to manager John Farrell.
"He plays at a very even pulse," Farrell said. "Good passes at the plate. Doesn't seem to be disrupted by velocity or secondary pitches. He's impressed."
Said pitcher Rick Porcello, who allowed two runs in eight innings and improved to 11-0 at home: "It's crazy. Seeing him get drafted a year ago, and he's up here in the big leagues getting three hits in multiple games, it's pretty fun. But you can see why, with his swing and his speed, the things that he's able to do at the plate, why he's such a highly touted player. Happy he's up here."
After singling in his first at-bat and scoring the Red Sox's first run in the third inning, Benintendi hit a 98 mph fastball from Yankees starter Luis Severino off the yellow line that separates the left-field wall from the wall behind the center-field stands, scoring Sandy Leon easily from third. Benintendi stopped at second base to await a call from the umpires, who conferred before signaling a home run.
But Yankees manager Joe Girardi asked for a review. Replays appeared to show the ball hitting the yellow line, which would indicate a home run. But replay officials reversed the call and sent Benintendi back to second base. According to Farrell, Fenway Park ground rules state that a ball must hit "to the right" of the yellow line to be counted as a home run.
"When the ricochet of the carom hit the top of the wall and not the triangle of any part of the wall behind where it would be out of bounds, that, as I'm seeing, is the ruling," Farrell said. "I asked but was denied any kind of ability to go out and ask what the ruling was."
It mattered little to Benintendi, who scored two batters later on Dustin Pedroia's double. Benintendi reached on an infield single in the seventh inning to complete a near-perfect Fenway debut.
"It's something I've dreamt of, not just since being drafted but since I was a little kid," Benintendi said. "To walk into the stadium and take BP and things like that, especially here at Fenway, it's a dream come true."
