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When the San Francisco Giants acquired slugger Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox in June, the thought was that they had an anchor in the middle of the lineup who could consistently hit the ball out of the park and drive in key runs. That had been the Devers signature throughout the majority of his career with his former team.
Devers has not had an easy adjustment to the Giants or playing at Oracle Park in San Francisco. However, he homered in Friday night's 5-0 victory over the Washington Nationals, and he repeated that success with another long ball in Saturday's 4-2 loss to the Nats. Both games were at the Giants' home ball park.
The triumph in the Friday night game helped the Giants end their eight-game home losing streak. That was one shy of the team's record for consecutive losses at home since moving to San Francisco in 1958.
The Giants are hoping that Devers is finally getting comfortable in his new environment. Since his trade to the Giants, Devers is slashing .227/.344/.393 with seven home runs and 22 runs batted in. He has played 44 games for the Giants and has 195 plate appearances that includes 9 doubles, 59 strikeouts and 28 bases on balls.
Devers has blasted 22 home runs this season, including 15 for the Red Sox. Overall, he has driven in 80 runs.
Giants have struggled to gain momentum since the trade
When the Giants traded for Devers, they were hoping to make a run at the National League West title or at least a spot in the playoffs as a Wild Card team. However, Bob Melvin's team has lacked consistency since Devers was acquired. The Giants are currently third in the National League West with a 59-58 record. They are 8 1/2 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers.
They are currently in 6th place in the in the National League Wild Card standings and are 4 1/2 games behind the New York Mets. New York is holding down the third and final Wild Card spot.
The Red Sox shocked the baseball world when they traded their leading slugger and designated hitter to the Giants. They decided to move Devers when he decided not to accept their request to play first base after Triston Casas suffered a season-ending Achilles injury.
Prior to the current season, Devers was Boston's starting third baseman, but he was moved to designated hitter after the team signed Alex Bregman to play third base. Devers seemed to accept the move to DH, but refused to play first base even when team ownership asked him to do so.
However, Devers has not had a problem playing first base from time to time for the Giants. He has largely been the team's DH, but he has played eight games at first base for San Francisco.
