Devers goes deep
Remember when Farrell benched third baseman Rafael Devers in favor of light-hitting utility infielder Deven Marrero in Game 2? It was questionable at the time why one of the best power hitters on the team would sit in a game where the Red Sox would need to score runs to keep up with the league’s highest scoring offense. It looks utterly foolish now.
Farrell cited Marrero’s success against left-handed pitching when defending his decision, while ignoring that Devers hit .400 with a 1.074 OPS against lefties this season.
This time the manager stuck with Devers when the Astros called for lefty Francisco Liriano out of the bullpen in the third inning of Game 3 and the rookie reminded us of the damage he can do against left-handed pitching. Liriano hung a slider on the second pitch of the at-bat that Devers crushed 430 feet into the right center field seats.
RAFAEL DEVERS! The @RedSox take the lead. https://t.co/gwou10Y9uv
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 8, 2017
The 20-year old Devers became the youngest Red Sox player to hit a home run in the postseason. He also joined some impressive company in MLB history.
Rafael Devers is 20 years, 349 days old. Only younger players to HR in playoffs: Miguel Cabrera, Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, Andruw Jones.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 8, 2017
The two-run blast gave the Red Sox their first lead of the series. Up to that point we wondered if this team would spend the entire series trailing but the Devers homer opened the floodgates for an offense running on renewed confidence.