Throughout his eight-plus seasons in a Boston Red Sox uniform, Rafael Devers was the ultimate New York Yankees killer.
The Red Sox on August 21 will begin their first series without Devers in the lineup against their archrival. Boston and New York haven't faced each other since the former completed a three-game sweep on June 15, the day the Red Sox shipped Devers to the San Francisco Giants. Both teams have been through quite a lot since then.
The Yankees have fallen well out of first place in the American League East, where they spent the first few months of the season. Aaron Judge spent some time on the injured list with a flexor strain, which didn't help matters. They're beginning to get back on track though — they won two straight series from August 11-17, which they haven't done since they played the Rockies and Angels from May 23-28.
The Red Sox immediately struggled without Devers. but their offense leveled out after hot streaks from Ceddanne Rafaela, Romy González, Trevor Story, and Roman Anthony's debut. Rafaela, González and mutiple other Sox bats have cooled down considerably and Boston's bullpen has faltered recently — the Red Sox could really use Devers' consistency against the Yankees now.
Red Sox-Yankees series won't be the same without Rafael Devers in Boston's lineup
Devers is a career .270/.348/.533 hitter with a .880 OPS against the Yankees over 199 appearances in his career. He's mashed 31 homers and racked up 78 RBI against them. The Red Sox have seven games against the Yankees standing in their way of playoff contention, and their Devers-less offense will be a stark change from nearly the last decade of matchups against New York.
Devers hasn't looked like himself with the Giants, with a .236/.342/.422 slash line and .764 OPS in 53 games there, but he was off to, possibly, the best season of his career with the Red Sox. He slashed .272/.401/.504 with. a .905 OPS, 15 homers, 58 RBI and 56 walks in 73 games with Boston.
The Devers trade is in the past, and the Red Sox need to focus on the future — if their final two series against the Yankees go awry, falling down the Wild Card standings or missing the playoffs entirely could be a real possibility. But one must wonder how Boston lining up without Devers could change its luck, or the Yankees' outlook on playing it. Devers has been possibly New York's biggest killer since David Ortiz, and the Red Sox did it a massive favor by trading him away.