Over the past month the young Boston Red Sox have put the baseball world on notice, and earlier Sunday two of the club’s breakout performers officially earned the first All-Star nods of their careers.
Yet while Jarren Duran and Tanner Houck deservedly earned their share of the spotlight, Sunday also served as a reminder that Rafael Devers is still among the best players on the planet.
Fresh off earning his third career All-Star selection, Devers put his stamp on Sunday’s primetime Red Sox-Yankees showdown by hitting two home runs and making a fantastic defensive play to end the bottom of the eighth inning. Combined with Kutter Crawford’s brilliant pitching performance, the Red Sox only needed 2:23 minutes to win Sunday’s series finale 3-0.
In doing so the Red Sox took two out of three from the Yankees in the Bronx and wrapped up their road trip with a 5-1 record. The club is now 49-40 on the season, 16-6 since June 12, and currently holds a 1.5-game lead over Kansas City for the last American League playoff spot.
“We can definitely compete, we’re a young team but we’re practicing and learning on a daily basis,” Devers told ESPN’s Eduardo Perez following the game. “At the beginning the defense wasn’t there but now it is and we continue to execute and we’re really proud of where this team is going.”
Before Devers took over, Sunday was shaping up to be a classic Red Sox-Yankees pitcher’s duel.
Crawford and Yankees right-hander Luis Gil have both experienced similar seasons, with each getting off to fantastic starts before eventually coming down to Earth. Crawford’s peaks and valleys haven’t been as extreme, but coming into Sunday the Red Sox right-hander had generally pitched well, posting four consecutive quality starts with an ERA of 3.33 over that stretch.
Gil, meanwhile, was a leading candidate for American League Rookie of the Year until mid-June, when the wheels came off and he allowed 16 runs over 9.2 innings over his last three starts entering the weekend.
But whatever issues Gil was having, he clearly worked them out.
The Yankees rookie was sensational on Sunday, striking out nine while allowing only one run on four hits and no walks over 6 2/3 innings. The only Red Sox players who could figure out Gil were Rafael Devers, who went 2 for 3 against the starter with a solo home run in the top of the seventh, and Dominic Smith, who went 2 for 2 with a double against Gil. The rest of the lineup collectively went 0 for 18.
Yet good as Gil was, Crawford was better.
The Red Sox right-hander was ruthlessly efficient, posting seven shutout innings on only 68 pitches. He never threw more than 14 pitches in an inning and between the second and fifth innings he didn’t need more than eight. The Yankees didn’t so much as threaten until the bottom of the sixth, but even after getting runners in scoring position Crawford didn’t blink.
After DJ LeMahieu doubled with two outs, Crawford immediately struck out Cohasset’s Ben Rice to end the threat. Then after Juan Soto led off the seventh with a double of his own, Crawford sent down Aaron Judge, Alex Verdugo and Anthony Volpe in quick succession to strand Soto at third base.
Crawford finished with four hits and no walks allowed, and threw 54 of his 68 pitches for strikes. His ERA is now down to 3.24 on the season and according to the Red Sox Crawford now owns a 1.96 ERA and .176 opponents batting average against the Yankees, which is the lowest opposing average for any Red Sox pitcher against the Yankees with at least five starts.
Ceddanne Rafaela gave the Red Sox a little bit more breathing room with his solo home run in the top of the eighth, which made it 2-0 Boston, and after Justin Slaten walked Oswaldo Cabrera in the eighth to give New York some life, Slaten struck out Trent Grisham and drew a weak grounder by LeMahieu, which Devers barehanded on the run and zipped to first for the out to end the threat.
Devers then hit his second home run of the game off Michael Tonkin in the top of the ninth, and Kenley Jansen made quick work of the top of New York’s lineup to lock down his 18th save of the season.
With the All-Star Break now just a week away, the Red Sox will aim to keep up their momentum over their final homestand of the first half. First up will be the Oakland Athletics, who currently sit last in the AL West, and after that will be the Royals, one of the biggest surprises of the season and right now one of Boston’s biggest competitors for a playoff spot.
But first, the Red Sox get to enjoy a happy flight back to Boston and a day off on Monday.
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