Chris Sale explains how he fixed things
The Red Sox lost by a run Saturday night, dropping a 5-4 decision to the Brewers in Milwaukee. (This was in large part to Rowdy Tellez's 14th homer in 37 games against the Sox.) They are sitting at 11-11, last-place in the American League East.
But what Rafael Devers did - once again - was offer a reminder how much worse it could be without him around. Looking for an MVP of this team? It's not all that complicated.
In this case, Devers gave the Red Sox chance thanks to his two-run homer in the eighth inning, drawing the visitors within one. Sound familiar?
Nobody in the American League has as many homers as Devers (8), who trails only Tampa Bay's Randy Arozarena in among AL hitters in RBI. He leads all MLB hitters in extra-base hits, while trailing only Pete Alonso in total bases.
It's impressive, and important.
Of the active players for the Red Sox, only Alex Verdugo is in double digits when it comes to RBI. Verdugo is also the only other member of the Sox' lineup with an OPS north of .800.
Since the absence of Adam Duvall, others have stepped it up a notch, with Verdugo (.900 OPS), Reese McGuire (.870) and Justin Turner (.836) at the top of the list. But it is Devers who has has truly added the punch the Sox' outfielder left behind.
In 12 games of post-Duvall, the Red Sox third baseman leads the team with four homers, eight extra-base hits and 11 RBI.
And he is doing all of this while - as predicted - carrying the weight of the Red Sox' world.
He is the guy with the big contract. He is the one hitter opponents know is most likely to beat them. It's a combination more than a few haven't been able to handle.
But there he is, arguably better than ever.
“He’s been good,” Cora told reporters. “The guys in front of him are doing an outstanding job getting on base. When you’ve got traffic in front of you, it's hard to pitch around you. You don't want to run into situations -- bases loaded or first and second, less than two outs. He's been doing an outstanding job. Overall, offensively, keeping the line moving, taking walks and grinding at-bats, I think [has been] so far, so good.”