BOSTON --- Rafael Devers sat silently in the Red Sox dugout. Christian Vazquez soon joined him.
Boston’s third baseman and catcher looked out at the Fenway Park diamond, the stands emptying rapidly. The remainder of the 32,632 fans in attendance on a cool Thursday night were eerily quiet.
The Red Sox had just been sucker punched by the Twins in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was the kind of deep, penetrating body blow that takes the breath from your lungs. Eddie [...]
BOSTON --- Rafael Devers sat silently in the Red Sox dugout. Christian Vazquez soon joined him.
Boston’s third baseman and catcher looked out at the Fenway Park diamond, the stands emptying rapidly. The remainder of the 32,632 fans in attendance on a cool Thursday night were eerily quiet.
The Red Sox had just been sucker punched by the Twins in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was the kind of deep, penetrating body blow that takes the breath from your lungs. Eddie Rosario delivered it from left field with his strong right arm.
Rosario’s throw to the plate was on line and on time. Devers dashed around third base and attempted a head-first slide, but he was out by a good seven feet. J.D. Martinez’s double went for naught as Minnesota escaped with a 2-1 victory.
Xander Bogaerts dropped a one-out single into left and Devers beat out a fielder’s choice grounder to second, avoiding what could have been a game-ending 4-6-3 double play. Devers was on the move again when Martinez – down to his final strike in a 2-and-2 count – drove a slider from Taylor Rogers about halfway up the Green Monster.
“I know how important that run is, and it’s something that we’ve practiced before,” Devers said through translator Bryan Almonte. “I went on contact and I felt like I had a good chance of scoring.”
Devers gathered steam as he rounded second and never broke stride, waved home without hesitation by third base coach Carlos Febles. Martinez had just collected only the fourth hit of the night for Boston, and Vazquez was 0-for-3 as he stood on deck. The decision to send Devers was an immediate one.
“Rosario was playing in the left-center gap,” Febles said. “The ball hits off the wall. I know Raffy is coming hard. Now (Rosario) has to make a decision to throw it to the plate from there or hit the cutoff man. He came up and made a perfect throw to the plate.”
The relay man and the catcher were essentially the same person. First baseman C.J. Cron was across the diamond to take the throw, but he was only about 50 feet in front of home plate. Jason Castro called for the ball to be allowed through, and Cron ducked out of the way in plenty of time.
“He hits the ball, you think it’s out of the ballpark,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “The ball bounces off the wall and you think he’s going to score, and he’s out.”
Devers stood slowly and walked toward the clubhouse with Vazquez, watching the replay on the center field video board perched above the bleachers. The grim result was on display for all to see, and there was more bad news along the bottom of the wall in left. Tampa Bay and Oakland both won on Thursday, further punishing the Red Sox in what has become an increasingly unlikely bid to secure an American League wild card berth.
“I was just trying to soak in what just happened,” Devers said. “Obviously I was really upset about the at-bat that I had and not being able to score when J.D. hit that ball.
“That’s something that also stuck with me. I just don’t like to lose.”
bkoch@providencejournal.com
On Twitter: @BillKoch25