Rafael Devers has settled in with the San Francisco Giants. He was just named co-National League Player of the Month after hitting .291 with nine home runs in August.
His new teammates appear to have taken to him, too. On Tuesday, Devers crushed a ball to right field against the Colorado Rockies for a home run. As he was rounding the bases, Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland had words for him. Devers chirped back, and the benches cleared.
The ball was a moonshot; it had a 43-degree launch angle, sending it higher than most home runs. It’s fair to say that Devers admired his work, but Freeland was the instigator. One angle shows that Devers didn’t begin to look at Freeland until after the pitcher started yelling at him.
Devers hadn’t even reached second base when the benches cleared and joined in the fight. While he left the base path, he wasn’t called out because the umpires stopped the play. He finished rounding the bases about five minutes later while a new pitcher was warming up. It was the longest home run trot of the 2025 season.
No real punches were thrown, but Willy Adames and Matt Chapman were ejected for the San Francisco Giants, while Freeland was removed from the game for Colorado. Devers took over at third base following the ejection of Chapman, his first appearance at the position this season.
Story continues below advertisement
There were no fireworks in Devers’ next trip to the plate. The former Red Sox slugger struck out on five pitches, though a hit-by-pitch would have certainly led to at least one more ejection, if not several.
Featured image via Eakin Howard/Imagn Images
