Red Sox Shut Down Rafael Devers, Win Emotional Showdown

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Ex-Red Sox DH Rafael Devers

If it makes Red Sox fans feel better, the headline on the San Francisco Chronicle’s Friday night game story from Boston’s series-opening, 7-5 win against the Giants, the team with which the Sox made a monster trade less than a week ago, was this: “Giants yet to see the benefit of Rafael Devers deal as they fall to Red Sox.”

It’s not that fans of the Red Sox are putting a hex on Devers, it’s just that they’d rather not see him hit .400 with 40 homers here in the second half of the year, and they certainly don’t want him to find his groove in head-to-head matchups against his old team. Red Sox pitchers held him to an 0-for-5 night on Friday, which drops him to .188 on the season.

There are still two games remaining in the series, so Red Sox fans should not get too excited. Devers at Oracle Park is still a scary proposition. But the Red Sox did well to keep Devers off-balance all evening. Starter Hunter Dobbins got him to ground out on the first pitch Devers saw in the first inning, with a runner in scoring position. He was retired on two flies to center and another grounder (which moved a runner, who eventually scored, up).

Devers’ night ended with an electric strikeout by Aroldis Chapman in the ninth on a high fastball that registered 102 mph.

Rafael Devers: Would Have Played 1st if Asked in Spring

But Devers did deliver more daggers to the hearts of the team’s fandom on Friday when he said he would have moved to first base–which, presumably, would have removed the impetus to trade him–if only the team had asked him earlier.

“I would say that I put some good numbers up in Boston, and I think that I do feel that I have earned some respect,” Devers told reporters. “If they would have asked me at the beginning of spring training, yes, I would have played.”

It was an odd response from Devers, who was asked by the Red Sox to make a much easier transition from third base to designated hitter in spring training, after the acquisition of Alex Bregman, a very good defensive third baseman. Devers, of course, pitched a fit over making that move. At the time, the Red Sox were still hopeful that young slugger Triston Casas would establish himself at the position, but a knee injury in early May ended his season.

That was when the Red Sox asked Devers to play first. It would have made little sense to ask him to move while Casas was healthy.

Red Sox Remain on Hot Streak

But, as Devers said, that toothpaste is already out of the tube. “That’s in the past,” Devers said. “Those are not decisions that I control, and I’m leaving that in the past right now.”

For the Red Sox, somehow, the present keeps looking pretty good, even as their trove of three young prospects–Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and the recently demoted Kristian Campbell–struggle at the plate. Anthony and Mayer were a combined 1-for-8 on Friday, but homers from Ceddanne Rafaela and David Hamilton, the No. 8 and 9 hitters, fueled the offense.

The Red Sox are 10-2 in their last 12 games. They’ll play the Giants again at 4:05 p.m. ET on Saturday.

Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney