Dusty Brown Proud To Make History

The Red Sox had never used more than two position players on the mound in a season -- until 2009.

Catcher Dusty Brown pitched the ninth inning against the Blue Jays last night, becoming the third position player to pitch this season, after Jonathan Van Every (April 30 against the Rays) and Nick Green (August 27 against the White Sox).

Brown also became the first catcher to ever pitch for the Red Sox.

Really? I didn't know that. That's cool.

Terry Francona asked Brown in the seventh inning about pitching:

I just think that I was really the only expendable player on the bench and I think they didn't want to burn anymore bullpen guys. So I got an inning. ...

My first few warm-up pitches, it kind of set in and I was kind of nervous about it. But I settled down, I thought. ... Straight fastballs, four-seamers. That's all I threw. I tried to take a little off of one pitch and bounced it. So that was the last one I tried to mix up a little bit.

Brown, on striking out Randy Ruiz:

Yeah, I humped up a little bit on that last one. Got two strikes, I saw a chance for a strikeout, so I put a little extra on it.

Brown last pitched in 2001, for Yavapai Community College in Prescott, Arizona. He was the team's catcher and closer.