Rafael Devers has been one of the bright spots for the Boston Red Sox this season, but did he ever get into a tough situation Thursday night at Fenway Park.
With the Red Sox trailing 2-1 in the ninth inning to the Minnesota Twins, J.D. Martinez clubbed a ball off the Green Monster with two outs. Devers was on first base to begin the at-bat and ran on contact, and in a perplexing move, he heeded the direction of third base coach Carlos Febles and tried to score on the play. Twins left fielder Eddie Rosario, who has a heck of an arm, threw Devers out by a mile, ending the game and putting the Sox 6 1/2 games back in the wild card race.
After the game, Devers addressed the baserunning gaffe.
“Just trying to be aggressive on that play,” Devers said through a translator. “Obviously I was running hard and I know Eddie has a good arm but I was just following what the coaches — Carlos had me going — and I just put my head down and went full speed and I actually thought I had a good chances of scoring but it just didn’t work out that way.”
Take a listen to his full comments below.
Rafael Devers after being thrown out at home in Red Sox loss. pic.twitter.com/low0vKm69n
— NESN (@NESN) September 6, 2019
Again, the Red Sox likely are well farther out of the wild card picture if not for Devers, but that was a brutal mistake.
