Anyone who’s paid any attention to Rafael Devers’ young baseball career knows he has the chance to be special. And Sunday night in the Bronx, the Boston Red Sox third baseman proved that to the entire baseball world on a national stage.
Devers launched a game-tying solo home run off New York Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman with one out in the ninth inning Sunday night, extending the game and giving the Red Sox a chance to push across the winning run in the ninth inning. Boston not only won the game but took the series, extending its lead in the American League East to 5 1/2 games in the process — much to the dismay of the home crowd.
It’s hard to believe Devers is just 20 years old. He handles the bat like a seasoned veteran, and the at-bat against Chapman was the greatest example of that. Down 1-2 in the count with the game all but lost, Devers calmly drove the ball the other way into a deep part of the ballpark for the home run — on a 103-mph fastball.
In fact, MLB director of baseball and research development Daren Willman tweeted Sunday night that Devers’ homer was the hardest pitch hit for a home run in the Statcast era.
According to Statcast, while the pitch came in at 102.8 mph, it went out at nearly 106 mph and traveled roughly 423 feet before finding a home in the Red Sox bullpen.
Pretty wild. As ESPN Stats and Info pointed out, the home run also was the first round-tripper allowed by Chapman since Rajai Davis took him deep in Game 7 of the World Series.
In fact, it was just the second time in Chapman’s entire career he allowed a home run to a left-handed batter. The only other lefty hitter to homer off Chapman was Luke Scott, who did so in 2011 when Chapman was still with the Cincinnati Reds.
Devers is also just the second rookie to homer off Chapman (Maikel Franco did so in 2015), but the 20-year-old is the youngest player to hit a home run against the flame-throwing southpaw. And of the 1,112 times in his career Chapman has gotten to two strikes in the count, it was just the sixth time he’s served up a dinger.
The home run was the fourth of the season for Devers, who’s now hitting .328 with 10 RBIs in just 15 big league games.
Thumbnail photo via Wendell Cruz/USA TODAY Sports Images
