Alford makes big-league debut with Blue Jays

• As New Hampshire Fisher Cats outfielder Anthony Alford stepped off the team bus in Reading, Pa., on Thursday night, his manager Gary Allenson pulled him aside and told him he was being promoted.

“I thought he was saying I was going to Triple A and I’m like, ‘ OK, I’m going to Buf- falo,’ ” said Alford. “But he said, ‘No, you’re going to meet the team in Baltimore. You’re going to ( the Blue Jays). It was really exciting for me. Still feels like I’m dreaming.”

And to make the dream of making his Major League debut even more unreal, Jays’ manager John Gibbons threw Alford right in the starting lineup against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards on Friday night.

“Yeah, why not?” said Gibbons. “He’s one of our top dogs, family will be here, I think it’s perfect.”

Prior to Friday’s game, the Columbia, Miss., native had never played higher than Double A. Alford has certainly been one of the organization’s top dogs this season, hitting .325 with three home runs with the Fisher Cats. Baseball America recently bumped him to No. 34 on its list of the league’s top 100 prospects.

And what was even more exciting for Alford is that he gets to play with one of his best friends, outfielder Dwight Smith Jr., who was promoted from Buffalo on Thursday and made his Major League debut for Toronto in Atlanta. “It’s cool he’s here with his best buddy, too, Smitty, you can’t separate those guys,” said Gibbons.

Alford admitted that he was operating on practically no sleep Friday. After being told that he was heading to the bigs, the laid- back former U. S. university football star sat in the lobby of the team hotel in Reading with a bunch of his teammates.

“Everyone was excited for me,” he said. “There was about 20 of us sitting in the hallway l ate ( Thursday) night, taking in the moment. I think they were just as excited as I was. and my soon to be brother- in- law, who’s my roommate ( outfielder Jonathan Davis), he was pretty much in tears when I told him. We sat in the hallway for 30- 45 minutes just enjoying that moment.”

Alford, 22, was welcomed by his new Jays teammates as he walked through the vis- iting clubhouse at Camden Yards, still in shock after a difficult 2016 season in which he suffered a number of injuries — including a June concussion after he collided with a teammate.

Alford said one of the best pieces of advice he received upon his promotion was from Jays’ third baseman Josh Donaldson, who is on rehab assignment in Dunedin ( right calf ). “He was just telling me to go out (and remember that) it’s pretty much the same game and just go out there and have fun and expect greatness out of myself and don’t expect anything else,” he said.