It appeared as though Rafael Devers was never going to hit a fastball again. And it sure looked like the Red Sox' days of winning in Yankee Stadium were a thing of the past.
With one huge swing -- and we do mean huge -- all parties involved exhaled.
Rafael Devers' first-inning 112.4 mph, 429-foot home run into the night at Yankee Stadium meant more than most. That was a reality that was evident even before Matt Barnes struck out the side in the ninth, sealing the Sox' 5-2 win.
Why was this one so notable? For starters, it came against a fastball. That might seem like a innocuous piece of the equation, but considering the path Devers was going down it was anything but.
After watching the lefty hitter flail away at four days of heaters in Houston, this was a trend that had become of the utmost concern considering Devers' importance. You could tell yourself this was a hitter who hit .308 against fastballs just two seasons ago, or siphon off the memory of that homer against Aroldis Chapman's 104 mph heater in this very same park. But, still, doubts had crept in.
Those doubts left the building the minute the baseball left Devers' bat.
“Obviously, they’re throwing me a lot of fastballs like you mentioned and I’m not mad at it," Devers said. "I just make my adjustments and obviously I was able to hit that one pretty deep but that’s really what it’s all about is making the adjustments and trying to do what I can with it.”
The home run did something more than just offer optimism regarding one of the Red Sox' most important players. It also allowed for the suggestion that Alex Cora's team could actually win in a place it had lost 15 of its last 16 visits.
The dominance the Yankees held over the Yankees since Steve Pearce caught that throw from Eduardo Nunez on Oct. 9, 2018 was put in the rearview mirror bit by bit over the course of the 2-hour, 49-minute game.
Nathan Eovaldi continued to offer the image of a front-end starter, allowing one earned run over six innings, striking out seven without walking a batter.
Hirokazu Sawamura came through with his signature outing as a Red Sox, throwing two dominant innings that included five of his six outs coming via strikeouts.
And then there was Barnes. Three batters, three punchouts. That would be 44 strikeouts in 25 innings. This after compiling an ERA of just more than 25.00 in his previous four Yankee Stadium appearances.
As has been the case more times than not, the Red Sox stiff-armed all of those doubts that had been festering throughout the week to send yet another message.
This time, fortunately for the Red Sox, it was Devers who delivered.
