At this point in the season, no one should be surprised by what Rafael Devers is capable of at the plate.
But with every passing game, it seems that the Boston Red Sox third baseman is reaching a new milestone or setting a new mark that further capitalizes just how incredible he has been this season.
Devers went 4-for-5 with a home run and four RBIs as the Red Sox capped off a critical three-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles with a 13-7 win Sunday at Fenway Park.
Devers, 22, now has a league-leading 101 RBIs on the season and also has scored 103 runs as he continues to put up Ted Williams-like numbers.
NESN
Perhaps most impressive has been Devers’ ability to use the whole field, and to hit with power to all parts of the park. After drilling a homer over the Monster on Saturday, he drilled another Sunday, his 27th of the season right down the right field line.
Since starting the month 5-for-37, Devers has hit safely in his last eight games, and is 20-for-37 during that stretch.
“Going the other way, pulling the ball, staying in the zone, It’s funny because 10 days ago, 15 days ago we were talking about him chasing pitches and his slump and all that stuff,” Alex Cora told reporters after the game, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “And now, it just seems like everything that is in the zone he is hitting hard.
“The quality of the at-bats are great, with two strikes, early in the count,” Cora added. “The kid just keeps working, he’s not taking anything for granted everyday he shows up. He sticks to his routine, his studies then he goes out there and performs the way he’s doing. It’s fun to watch.”
Here are some other notes from Sunday’s Red Sox-Orioles game:
— Nathan Eovaldi’s re-entry into the starting rotation went anything but smoothly.
The hard-throwing right-hander had not made a start since April 17 after undergoing elbow surgery and returning in July to bullpen. Eovaldi was roughed up for five runs over two innings, striking out just one with three walks and three hits, including a home run.
“I felt fine physically, I was just all over the place. I wasn’t able to execute my pitches when I needed to,” Eovaldi told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “They needed me to go out there and go a little deeper and I was only able to go two innings. I felt like the quality of the pitches were okay, breaking ball wise but I just wasn’t ahead int the count for them to swing and they weren’t being as aggressive and just the walks I felt like really hurt me.”
— Boston’s bullpen continued to be quite effective of late.
The Red Sox used six relievers to get through Sunday’s win after Eovaldi went just two innings, combining to allow just one earned run over seven innings of work.
NESN
Since the trade deadline, Boston’s bullpen has the third best ERA in baseball.
— Boston’s offense continues to be everything it was last season, and perhaps even better.
The Sox clubbed 16 hits, the 16th time they have had 15 or more hits, which leads Major League Baseball.
— The Sox, like the rest of baseball, really have been sending the ball out of the park at a pretty insane rate.
Home runs from Devers and Sam Travis on Sunday made it home runs in 11 straight for Boston, which also has homered in 44 of their last 48 games.
They also could be tracking toward setting the team’s extra-base hit record, currently on pace for 644, five behind the mark set in 2003.
