Welcome back Dusty Brown

The last time Dusty Brown saw the inside of the Red Sox clubhouse at Fenway, it looked a lot different than it did on Sunday, when the catcher was called up to the majors for the first time in his career, taking the spot temporarily for Daisuke Matsuzaka.

“It’s the first call-up,” the 27-year-old catcher said. “We’ll see what happens. It’s pretty good. The last time I was in here I think was the year I signed, 2001, and it was much smaller. I was expecting less, I guess. I was pretty impressed.”

Brown’s impact at Triple-A Pawtucket has come behind the plate as he has thrown out 28 percent (16-of-58) of attempted base stealers and leads all International League catchers in putouts (329) and total chances (359).

“It’s been up and down. Defensively, I think it’s been pretty good and our pitching staff has been doing pretty good. I’ve struggled offensively more than I would like to but there’s been some bright spots. I’m just trying to find some consistency at the plate.”

Brown comes up to give the Red Sox the luxury of having three catchers on the roster for a day, ensuring that Jason Varitek gets the entire day off. George Kottaras is catching Tim Wakefield and John Smoltz will be activated on Thursday to make Matsuzaka's next start against Washington.

“We’ve got a day off Monday, it’s almost like a free roster spot until Smoltz comes back on,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “We always try to stay away from Tek on a day game and Dusty’s already on the (40-man) roster, let’s just get him here.”

Brown is batting .239 with two home runs and 12 RBI over 47 games with Triple-A Pawtucket this season.  He has reached base safely in 11 of his last 12 contests with six hits and 11 walks in that time.

Selected in the 35th round of the 2000 First-Year Player draft, Brown has a career .260 average with 40 homers and 287 RBI over 588 games in the Red Sox farm system.

Brown admitted that he was pleasantly surprised to get the call on Saturday night.

“I hadn’t heard anything, nobody had gotten hurt, not that I knew of,” Brown said. “Then all of sudden I get pulled out of the shower and get told I’m going to the big leagues so it was really exciting and definitely unexpected.