SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Rafael Devers hit his first home run for the Giants, connecting against his former Boston Red Sox team just six days after being traded to San Francisco.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Rafael Devers hit his first home run for the Giants, connecting against his former Boston Red Sox team justsix days after being tradedto San Francisco.
Devers began his first series against the Red Sox bygoing 0 for 5 on Friday nightand grounding out in his first at-bat Saturday. He then delivered just what hisnew team had been expectingwhen he hit an opposite-field drive off Brayan Belloover the left-field fencefor a two-run homer in the third inning.
Devers got loud cheers from the big crowd in San Francisco as he rounded the bases for his 216th career home run that just happened to be caught by a fan in a Red Sox T-shirt.
Devers was traded by Boston less than two years into a 10-year, $313.5 million contract extension that he signed in 2023.
Devers’ relationship with the Red Sox began to deteriorate when the team signed Gold Glove third basemanAlex Bregmanduring spring training and asked Devers to move to DH;he balkedbefore agreeing to the switch. When first baseman Triston Casas sustained a season-ending knee injury, the Red Sox approached Devers about playing the field and he declined, saying the front office“should do their jobs”and look for another player.
A day after Devers’ comments to the media about playing first, Red Sox owner John Henry, team president Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslowflew to Kansas Cityto meet with Devers and manager Alex Cora.
Devers’ stance didn’t change and he was eventually traded to San Francisco where he is practicing at first base to play there later this season. Devers said Friday that he wouldn’t have done anything differently in his time in Boston, adding that he was as happy as he has been in years after joining the Giants.
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AP MLB:https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
Josh Dubow, The Associated Press