Liam Hendriks calls out the haters
Through all the chaos surrounding Rafael Devers throughout the 2025 season, one aspect of the designated hitter's existence has gone somewhat under the radar: Devers continues to be one of the best hitters in all of Major League Baseball.
Devers continued to build on his already stellar campaign, launching his 11th homer of the season - a three-run blast - as part of a five-run sixth inning in the first game of Friday's doubleheader against the Orioles. He proceeded to hit another homer in the eighth, blasting his seventh career grand slam against Baltimore position player Emmanuel Rivera.
The homers were two of the decisive blows in what would be a 19-4 win for the Red Sox, who went into Game 2 once again living the life of a .500 team (26-26).
Devers finished with a career-high eight RBI, becoming the first Red Sox batter to accomplish the feat since Mookie Betts on July 2, 2017.
A piece of Devers' 2025 dominance has been a continued success against left-handed pitching, with the home run vs. Baltimore southpaw Gregory Soto. While it was only his second homer against a lefty this season, it did boost his batting average vs. left-handers to .313, giving him more hits (20) vs. such pitchers than any other left-handed hitter.
At game's end, Devers has totaled three hits to raise his batting average to .299 and OPS to .972. He leads the majors with 47 RBI.
The offensive explosion by Devers and the Red Sox came one frame after Alex Bregman was forced from the game with right quad tightness. Bregman immediately exited after rounding first on a wall-ball single.
The Red Sox bullpen was once again called on to play a key role, with Brayan Bello lasting just four innings. The combination of Brennan Bernardino, Garrett Whitlock, Justin Wilson, and Justin Slaten held the O's to just one run over four innings. Abraham Toro come on to pitch the final inning after the Sox built their 16-run lead.
Another key hit in the pivotal sixth inning game from Jarren Duran, who also managed to excel in a left-on-left situation, rifling the go-ahead in single into right-center field against Soto.
Duran managed another key hit against a lefty in the eighth inning, scoring Ceddanne Rafaela with a double off the left field wall. It was just the second time this season Duran has come away with multiple RBI against lefties.
Duran's second RBI came in the midst of an 13-run inning for the Red Sox in the eighth, with Rob Refsnyder highlighting the scoring with a three-run homer.
The 13 runs in the eighth were the most scored by the Red Sox in a single frame since June 27, 2003.