Rafael Devers sure is making the most of his uptick in at-bats.
Devers remains arguably the hottest hitter in baseball since being moved to the No. 2 spot in the Boston Red Sox batting order. The 22-year-old had another fine performance Thursday night, going 2-for-5 with a home run and a pair of RBIs in Boston’s 19-3 rout of the New York Yankees.
As Red Sox senior manager of media relations and baseball information Justin Long pointed out Friday morning, Devers is in some kind of a groove, and it’s rubbing off on his teammates.
Devers, perhaps the front-runner for American League player of the month in July, is hitting .365 in the 24 games since moving up in the order with nine home runs and 33 RBIs. That would be a ridiculous 162-game pace of 61 home runs and 223 RBIs.
That the Red Sox are only 14-10 in this stretch, however, underscores the need for improvement from the pitching staff. The offensive firepower actually has been there most of the season, too. The Sox lead the majors in runs, hits, doubles, batting average and on-base percentage and are actually outpacing their production from last season when they won 108 games.
Despite all of that, Boston still is on pace to win fewer than 90 games, emphasizing the need for the current pitching staff to perform better and/or for the club to make some sort of move to add pitching before Wednesday’s trade deadline.
