Devers’s status unknown; Sox fall in extras
Slugger felled by new knee pain
Guardians 10 RedSox 7
Rafael Devers sat at his locker inside the Red Sox clubhouse with a purple towel wrapped around his back and waist.
He stared into space as he slowly removed his black flip flops. Almost in disbelief, and, equally, frustration.
He’s battled a shoulder injury dating to spring training, causing him to miss six games this season. He missed four straight before returning for Monday’s series opener against the Guardians.
In Tuesday’s 10-7, 11-inning loss, the lineup began to feel the presence of Devers again. What he brings is immeasurable. The fear he strikes in opponents is palpable.
As part of a five-run sixth inning, Devers scalded a tworun, go-ahead double. He bellowed when he reached second base, his Sox leading, 6-5. He lifted his arms in celebration, looking toward his teammates in the first-base dugout.
The shoulder looked healthy. It felt like the Sox had their main guy back after losing so many to injuries.
After the seventh inning, he was gone. Out of the contest with left knee discomfort.
“I never had any issues with my legs,” said an agonized Devers. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
He said he hurt his knee in the seventh when he ranged to his left, backhanding a grounder on a double-play attempt. Though he has worn a sleeve over his knee in recent days, that’s when Devers said he first felt the pain.
The Sox called on Bobby Dalbec to take over third base for Devers, who will receive more imaging Wednesday.
His injury came innings after Garrett Whitlock lasted just four and 54 pitches, pulled because of left oblique tightness he began feeling in the third. Whitlock, at least,
said he feels his exit was more for precautionary reasons.
Regardless, Tuesday’s extra-inning squabble was a loss even when it still could have produced a win.
“It sucks,” manager Alex Cora said. “But we have to play better.”
His team took that 6-5 lead into the ninth inning, but Kenley Jansen — who converted his first four save chances despite four walks, a hit batter, and a single — failed to finish it following an Andrés Giménez game-tying single. His struggles continue.
“At the end of the day, I got to take this one and be accountable about it,” he said.
Cleveland scored three in the 11th off Josh Winckowski. Estevan Florial had the critical blow, a two-run single to extend the Guardians’ lead to multiple runs for the first time since the sixth inning, when they looked to have control of a Red Sox team they shut out on three hits Monday.
Guardians starter Tanner Bibee allowed just a run on five hits and two walks, exiting after five innings with his team leading, 5-1.
That’s when the Sox offense went to work, starting with a Triston Casas homer against Lawrence Academy alumnus Tyler Beede that wrapped around the Pesky Pole. After a walk and a strikeout, Connor Wong cut the deficit to 5-4 with a no-doubt, two-run shot over the Green Monster.
Feeling momentum shift with his reliever wallowing on the dusted Fenway mound, manager Stephen Vogt summoned Cade Smith. Smith struck out David Hamilton, but Ceddanne Rafaela clipped a double that split the gap in left-center before a Jarren Duran walk.
Devers then doubled, a two-run stinger that violently ricocheted off the center-field wall.
Earlier, the Sox had dug the hole through more mistakes of their own making. Casas slashed a leadoff double to begin the second inning, then took off for third with Wilyer Abreu up, thinking he could get there with the defense shifted. Bibee’s teammates alerted him to step off the mound, and he threw out the below-average runner for the first out.
“Low IQ play on my part,” said Casas.
Hours later, it hardly registered. At his locker, Devers slowly put his pants on, careful not to irritate his ailing parts even more. He doesn’t know what hurts worse, the shoulder or the knee. All he knows, he said, is that it hurts.
After the pants came the gray hoodie. He looked up and cracked a smile for a bit, but one of extreme pain. He let out a huge sigh.
“I don’t know what to think about right now,” Devers said. “I don’t know.”