NEW YORK -- Rafael Devers ended any worries that the Red Sox wouldn't be giving Chris Sale run support early on Saturday night.
The third baseman set the tone for the visitors at Yankee Stadium with a first-inning grand slam against New York starter Sonny Gray. The blast, Devers' 14th of the season, just cleared the left field fence. It was measured at 356 feet, with just a 48 percent hit probability.
The homer was the second grand slam of Devers' career and punctuated a four-run inning that was manufactured all with two outs. After outs by Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi, J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts sandwiched a pair of singles around a Mitch Moreland walk. That paved the way for the opposite fly ball off the bat of Devers, who had gone 2-for-15 with the bases full coming into the at-bat.
GRAND SLAM Rafael Devers.The @RedSox jump out to a 4-0 lead over Sonny Gray & the Yankees in the 1st pic.twitter.com/exrOnfUUYl
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX)
June 30, 2018 The homer elicited a similar reaction from Yankees fans as what was seen on social media following Devers' game-winning homer against Aroldis Chapman last season. (Language NSFW.)
I CANT WIT THIS B... DEVERS GRAND SLAM??? 2 OUTS??! What a joke WHOS MANZ IS THIS #yankees #PinstripePride #nyy pic.twitter.com/BEuOvGM7yH
— JoezMcfly---- (@JoezMcfLy)
June 30, 2018
