Rafael Devers makes Orioles pay for pitching to him, delivers 10th inning walk-off
Devers delivered in the clutch once again on Saturday.
With 1 out and a runner on second in the bottom of the 10th inning, Rafael Devers hesitated on his way to the batters box, waiting to see if Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino would signal an intentional walk.
No signal came. And Devers took advantage.
The Red Sox slugger laced a hit through the middle of the infield with enough juice to bring Ceddanne Rafaela home for a walk-off single and end the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader.
After the game, Mansolino explained why he let Gregory Soto pitch to Devers in that situation.
“If you put him on right there, it gets messy. And then, you’ve got to go with Soto against [Refsnyder],” Mansolini said.
Refsnyder has been adept at hitting off lefties, so Baltimore was in a bind either way. However, Devers leads all of MLB in RBIs and is one of the hottest hitters in baseball. He also racked up 8 RBIs including a three run homer against the Orioles earlier in the series.
Even though giving Devers the free base would seem to be the safer play in hindsight, Red Sox outfielder Wilyer Abreu understood where the Orioles were coming from in his postgame interview.
“Maybe they left him in just because of the lefy on lefty matchup, the probabilities are probably there,” Abreu said. “But we know what Raffy’s been doing lately, so no surprise there.”
Devers’s slow start to the season is far in the rearview mirror. He leads the Red Sox in RBIs (48), home runs (12), on base percentage (.412) and OPS (.962), and is second on the team in batting average (.297) and hits (60).
Saturday’s walk-off was Devers’s second in seven days. He hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Braves on May 17.
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