It was a reunion five days in the making.
On Friday, former Red Sox designated hitter Rafael Devers was reacquainted with the only franchise he ever knew the first nine years of his career, as the Giants (42-34) opened a three-game series at Oracle Park against Boston (40-37).
This series comes less than a week after the 28-year-old was shockingly traded from the Red Sox to San Francisco for pitchers Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks, along with minor league prospects James Thibbs and Jose Bello.
And even though Devers had already appeared in three games for the Giants prior to Friday, this time the whole thing finally felt real.
No matter how strange he looked on Friday in their alternate home oranges, Devers is a Giant, and he will be (in theory) through the end of the 2033 season.
But in his first game against his old team, Devers looked more like the player that started the season 0-19 at the plate than he did the player who departed Boston as arguably baseball’s best DH.
Here’s how it all played out:
Bottom 1
After receiving a standing ovation from a crowd full of Red Sox fans, Devers grounded out on the first pitch he saw to Abraham Toro at first, who tossed the ball to starting pitcher Hunter Dobbins covering the base for the out.
With that said, he did move Carl Yastrzemski’s grandson Mike over from second to third. And one batter later, “Young Yaz” scored on an error from second baseman David Hamilton, as he mishandled a Wilmer Flores ground ball to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.
So, hockey assist for Raffy?
Bottom 3
With Dobbins losing command in the 2nd inning, Devers was already back at the plate to lead off the 3rd for the Giants.
And on the fifth pitch he saw, Devers flew out deep to left-center, with Ceddanne Rafaela covering a lot of ground to make the catch.
“Homer at Fenway,” Will Middlebrooks said on NESN broadcast. “I’ll tell you what - it’s fastball central, and Raffy knows it. Because he knows what we know, and he’s gonna get a lot of fastballs. Not gonna get off-speed because he clobbers off-speed.
“Dobbins’ trying to go up with this fastball. You can’t throw the fastball down in the zone to Raffy. That’s the one he can get to. He just about made them pay. It’s a really nice play by Rafaela. That thing got up in the wind, just kept riding its way towards the fence.”
But, alas, the ball was short of the fence, and Devers officially began his day 0-2.
Bottom 5
With a man on first and no outs, Devers was set to face Dobbins as the second batter of the inning.
But with inconsistent command all night - including a near blunder in the 3rd that almost gave Devers his first home run as a Giant - manager Alex Cora opted to end Dobbins’ night at just 75 pitches.
He brought Brennan Bernardino out of the bullpen for the lefty-lefty matchup against Devers, and it paid off.
With an 0-1 count, Bernardino threw a sinker at 91 miles per hour on the inside corner that Devers made solid contact with. But shortstop Trevor Story was shifted just enough towards second base to field the ball and toss it to Toro at first base for out No. 1 of the inning.
It’s safe to say familiarity with Devers paid off for the Sox in the 5th.
Bottom 7
With a man on first and one down, Devers stepped to the plate for the fourth time on Friday with Justin Wilson on the mound.
With his team down 7-5 late in the game, the Giants were looking to their newfound star to make a play at the plate.
Instead, he flew out to left-center on the third pitch he saw - a four-seam fastball at 93 miles per hour on the inside part of the plate.
Four times up, four times down for Devers.
Yikes.
Bottom 9
With the Giants leaving the bases loaded to end the 8th inning, they did enough on offense to give us one more at bat for Devers on Friday.
This time, Aroldis Chapman was on the mound.
The Devers-Chapman connection runs deep in Devers lore, as it was a game-tying solo home run by the then-20-year-old off of the then-Yankees reliever in 2017 that first truly ingratiated Devers with Red Sox Nation.
That pitch went 102, and it just didn’t matter. Devers tied the game at 2-2, and Boston eventually won that August game at Yankee Stadium.
On Friday night, it was 102 in the top of the zone, and Devers wasn’t even close as he struck out for the first time on the night.
Baseball, man.
0-5 for Devers. Wow.
Devers is now 3 for 17 to start his career as a Giant, with two of those hits coming in his first game for San Francisco.
Sox fans saw first hand in 2025 that it’s way too early to panic if you’re a Giants fan. But make no mistake about it, it’s been a bad first week for the shiny new bat in the bay.
Devers and the Red Sox will go head-to-head again on Saturday, with first pitch set for 4:05 p.m. ET. He’ll face Brayan Bello (3-1, 3.49 ERA) for the first time in his professional career, with Landen Roupp (4-5, 3.99 ERA) getting the start for San Francisco.
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