Devers’ home run in 9th saves season for Red Sox
WASHINGTON — The Red Sox clinched a playoff berth on the regular season’s final day and will host the Yankees in the AL wild-card game after coming back to beat the Nationals, 7-5, on a tiebreaking two-run homer by Rafael Devers in the ninth inning Sunday.
Devers’ second homer of the game — and 38th of the season — came on a drive to straightaway center field off Kyle Finnegan on a 2-1 pitch with one out after Kyle Schwarber reached on an error.
It capped a four-hit, four-RBI afternoon for Devers, brought teammates bounding out of the dugout and prompted chants of “Yankees suck!” from some of Boston’s fans who could be heard throughout much of the afternoon in a crowd of 33,986 at Nationals Park. The home team has been dragging to a last-place finish after shipping away such stars as Max Scherzer and Trea Turner at the trade deadline.
Eduardo Rodriguez (13-8), who started and won at Washington on Friday night, threw a perfect eighth to get the win Sunday. Nick Pivetta, a starter who pitched Thursday, came on for the ninth inning and collected his first save since 2019, striking out Juan Soto to end it.
GIANTS WRAP UP WEST
The Giants finally won the NL West without needing to wait for the rival Dodgers’ result on the season’s final day, pounding the Padres, 11-4, on Sunday for a franchise-record 107th victory to top the 1904 New York team.
Logan Webb did it all in leading surprising San Francisco to its first division crown since 2012, delighting a delirious, deafening crowd of 36,901. Buster Posey had an incredible day, too.
Posey raised both arms into the air when Eric Hosmer struck out swinging to end it, and ran out to the mound to hug reliever Dominic Leone.
“The first thing that comes to mind for me is how proud I am of this group and what they accomplished,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler told fans from the field. “Part of the reason that I feel that way is because I think we all knew at the beginning of the season, or even dating back to the beginning of spring training, what the projections are and what the industry sort of thought of us as a club. What I realized is there are some intangibles that those projections and viewpoints failed to take into consideration.”
Webb walked off to a roaring standing ovation when replaced in the eighth after allowing three straight singles. He struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter while pitching seven-plus stellar innings, and also hit a two-run homer in the fifth to clear the fences for his first time in his career — a pretty line drive to left.
Posey drove in three runs on a pair of singles and got his 1,500th career hit as San Francisco’s division hopes came down to the final day. The Giants clinched the title in Game 162 after losing, 3-2, in 10 innings a day earlier as Los Angeles won at night against NL Central champion Milwaukee.