SI:AM | Rafael Devers Put on a Show on ‘Sunday Night Baseball’
Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I still can’t believe this throw by a fan in the Yankee Stadium bleachers.
In today’s SI:AM:
🎾 Wimbledon midterm grades
⛳ A unique summer sports tradition
💵 Jayson Tatum’s new project
This was his All-Star moment
Boston Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers was named to the American League All-Star team on Sunday for the third time in his career. Then he went out and showed exactly why he deserved a spot on the squad.
Devers was on fire during this weekend’s series against the New York Yankees, going 2-for-4 with a homer in Saturday’s game (a 14–4 Yankees win). And he was even better in the finale on Sunday Night Baseball, which Boston won, 3–0, going 3-for-4 with two homers and making a clutch play on defense late in the game.
Both starting pitchers—Luis Gil for New York and Kutter Crawford for Boston—were in total control early in the game. With two outs in the top of the seventh, the game was still scoreless. That’s when Devers put his stamp on the game with a solo homer to break the tie. He took a 99 mph fastball from Gil and sliced it the other way. It barely cleared the fence in left, traveling an estimated 373 feet.
It might look like Devers got lucky with that one, but make no mistake: Even though it was a wall-scraper, it was no cheapie. He really put a charge into it. The exit velocity on the homer was 103.8 mph, which allowed the ball to clear the fence even though it had a 37-degree launch angle.
And Devers didn’t just impress with his bat. In the eighth inning, he made a slick defensive play on a weak grounder by D.J. LeMahieu for the final out of the inning. Had he not made the play, the Yankees would have had two runners on base with the top of the order coming up in a two-run game.
Devers’s best play of the night, though, came in the top of the ninth when he hit his second homer. It was a no-doubt, 423-foot shot that left the bat at 107 mph and sailed into the Yankees’ bullpen. What made Devers’s bomb really impressive, though, is that the pitch from Michael Tonkin was thrown well out of the zone, high and outside, and yet Devers still managed to somehow pull the ball to deep right-center.
That’s just an absurd piece of hitting. How many other hitters could take a pitch that’s tailing away from them that far out of the zone and get around on it quickly enough to pull it? Hardly any.
Devers is only 27 but has already accomplished plenty in his eight years in the majors. He won a World Series in his first full season with Boston in 2018, has won two Silver Sluggers and received MVP votes in four different seasons. But this has been the best season of his career. His on-base percentage (.378) and slugging percentage (.593) are both the highest of his career. He has 21 homers a little more than halfway through the season, which puts him on pace for 38 for the year. That would tie a career high. He currently ranks sixth in the majors in both offensive WAR (3.7) and OPS (.971).
Devers made headlines this winter when he openly criticized Red Sox management for the team’s conservative offseason, saying his bosses “need to make an adjustment to help us players to be in a better position to win.” Boston is 49–40, good enough for the third and final wild-card spot in the AL. That’s mostly thanks to Devers, who has been the team’s best hitter by a sizable margin. But if the Red Sox are going to truly become contenders in the AL, they’ll have to listen to their star player and add some reinforcements. Otherwise Devers’s excellent season will go to waste.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Jon Wertheim takes stock of Wimbledon at the midway point of the tournament, where numerous top women’s players have already been upset.
- Wertheim also wrote about the origins of the one-of-a-kind American Century Championship golf tournament.
- Chris Mannix spoke with Jayson Tatum about how he’s helping young basketball players with financial literacy.
- Kevin Durant is dealing with an injury as Team USA opens its pre-Olympics training camp.
- The full rosters for the MLB All-Star Game have been announced.
- These are the five most egregious ASG snubs.
- Vikings rookie Khyree Jackson was killed in a car crash over the weekend.
The top five…
… things I saw yesterday:
5. Braves first baseman Matt Olson’s smooth behind-the-back play.
4. This slick move by Gabriel Pec of the LA Galaxy.
3. Pec’s game-winner after a beautiful pass from Mauricio Cuevas.
2. Jannik Sinner’s between-the-legs shot at Wimbledon.
1. Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s impressive play in center.