NEW YORK – Eight days ago, Zach Penrod became a father.

On Saturday, he became a Major Leaguer.

That’s quite a September for a left-hander who spent three years in Indy ball and was planning on retiring at the end of last year.

“It feels incredible,” Penrod said as he stood in his very first big-league dugout. “This is something I’ve been working towards for a long time, didn’t know if I’d ever accomplish.”

The Red Sox called him up and recalled fellow left-hander Bailey Horn ahead of Saturday afternoon’s game, optioned lefty Cam Booser and righty Zack Kelly to Triple-A, and designated catcher Tyler Heineman for assignment.

But the story of the day is Penrod, whose journey to The Show is one of the longest and most winding roads baseball has seen in some time. After going undrafted, Tommy John surgery and the coronavirus pandemic, which forced MiLB to cancel their entire 2020 season, became major hurdles in the Idaho native’s path.

For four games in 2018, Penrod was a Texas Rangers minor leaguer. But until late last summer, he thought those four games at the Rangers’ rookie level would be the extent of his MiLB career.

Then, in August ’23, the Red Sox came calling. Rather than put pressure on himself, Penrod took a different approach to his second chance.

“Honestly, I kind of just went back to having fun playing the game,” he said. “I think for a while there, I forgot, you know, I was just trying so hard so hard to get picked up again. I felt like that was the goal that I needed to accomplish, but just finding myself and having fun and doing what I do, and remembering it’s a kid’s game and we’re all here to have fun and have a blast, has helped me out a lot with confidence.”

The southpaw made four starts for High-A Greenville, where he posted a 2.18 ERA over 20.2 innings, and four in the Arizona Fall League, where he impressed with a 1.29 ERA over 14 frames. After seven starts for Double-A Portland to open the 2024 season, he was promoted to Triple-A.

On Saturday, the Red Sox called again. THE call. The dream come true.

“Kind of teared up a little bit when I got off the phone with (Triple-A manager Chad Tracy),” Penrod said. “I keep using the term ‘roller coaster’ because that’s like the only way I can really describe it. It’s ups, downs all the way. Being that I was thinking about being done at the start of last year, and then to find myself in Yankee Stadium, is something that I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”

Penrod and Horn left Worcester at 5:30 a.m. and came to the ballpark straight from the airport.

“I couldn’t stop smiling, and then I went out to the field and just looked around for a second. I just stunned,” Penrod said of arriving at his first big-league ballpark. “It was really special moment.”

Penrod brings an overpowering fastball to the mix. He has a 34.8% strikeout rate over his 62 2/3 innings between Double- and Triple-A this year, though command can be an issue. He’s also aware that he’s here to reinforce a Boston bullpen that has been the worst in baseball by ERA since the All-Star break, and that the Red Sox are 74-74 after back-to-back losses to the Yankees the past two nights. No one in the clubhouse is kidding themselves about the uphill battle to finish with a winning record, let alone stay in the Wild Card race.

But of the billions of humans who’ve lived and died on this blue marble, only 23,258 men have been able to call themselves Major League Baseball players.

After a lifetime of hard work and perseverance, Penrod now gets to say the same.

Better still, his wife and newborn daughter will be here to watch his dream come true.