Rafael Devers Is Destroying The Baseball Right Now
BOSTON (CBS) -- Michael Chavis is crushing the baseball and stealing most of the headlines for the Red Sox. But he isn't the only young slugger on the team tearing the cover off the ball at the moment.
Third baseman Rafael Devers is also destroying baseballs for Boston, blasting his third homer in as many games in Wednesday night's 6-5 extra innings win in Toronto. The 22-year-old's homer in the eighth inning provided some insurance for the Red Sox, giving them a 4-2 lead at the time, only to have the bullpen blow the lead in the ninth.
Luckily, Boston got round-trippers from both Mookie Betts and Chavis in extras, ultimately coming out on top because of the long ball. But it was Devers who got the power surge started late in the game with his sixth homer of the season.
Devers probably won't want to leave Toronto after Thursday afternoon's series finale, because he's hitting baseballs all over the Rogers Centre. On Monday, he smoked a 445-foot dinger that left the yard at 114.4 mph. His homer Tuesday, which came in the eighth inning of a 10-3 loss, traveled 432 feet. Wednesday's opposite field shot went a modest 400 feet, which was actually the shortest of Boston's three homers on the night.
In hitting a trio of homers over a three-game span, Devers joins some elite company in Red Sox history. He is just the sixth Red Sox player 22 or younger to homer in three straight games, joining Babe Ruth, Jim Tabor, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, and Rico Petrocelli.
Devers is 6-for-14 over the three games in Toronto, driving in five runs. It's part of a fantastic May for Boston's rising star, where he's slashed .341/.382/.610 with all six of his homers and 19 of his 27 RBIs on the season. He's also playing much better defense at the hot corner, committing just one error in the month back on May 2. Not bad for someone who had eight miscues in the field over his first 30 games of the year.
There were high hopes for Devers heading into the season, and Boston's five-hitter has not disappointed nearly a third of the way through the campaign.
